Howdy again folks! It’s time for a VERY SPECIAL EDITION of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! As I’ve stated in the last couple of editions, I’m running super behind on these, and well, this is my haul from immediately AFTER PAX to about the beginning of November. This is a very sentimental and memorable edition for me, as with this haul, I have brought my game collection to OVER 1,000 GAMES! Wait, what? Yeah, you read that correctly . . . ONE THOUSAND GAMES! Yes, I have finally broken the 1,000 game barrier and it was quite a special moment. So enough with the chit-chat, and let me share with you the wealth of games I have gotten this time around with some retro Sega Master System stuff, ATLUS, NIS, and Working Designs, Club Nintendo, a pretty rare version of a Zelda game, and more love for a little place I call Cash Converters!



So, here is my haul of DS games from my gaming mecca of Cash Converters. Bomberman, Pokémon Ranger, Sprung, Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: March of the Minis, Dig Dug: Digging Strike, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, and My Chinese Coach (if I get around to it, I thought it MIGHT be kind of useful to learn my “natural” language). I SERIOUSLY really need to get the original Professor Layton, as I played like 10 minutes of the sequel and instantly got hooked and know it’s a game I’ll actually play and enjoy!



Here’s some NES games I decided to pick up, in the shape of: Mach Rider, Clu Clu Land, and Pipe Dream.



So, not nearly as epic as most of my SNES finds, but still not bad nonetheless. An in box Mega Man X, Out of This World, Space Invaders, Revolution X, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, and apparently (according to Zoel) the extremely difficult The 7th Saga.



Some various games in the form of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Shining Force EXA, I-Ninja, and Shenmue II.



Finding old school and rare PS games from Cash Converters is also another side hobby in itself, hahaha! Here we have: Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Monster Rancher 2, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, Star Wars: Rebel Assault II – The Hidden Empire, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, Rock Band Unplugged (which is actually a pretty sweet game on PSP), and a replacement Crazy Taxi for Dreamcast, so I can get rid of my current ugly “Sega All Stars” version.



Look at the freaking condition of these two Guncon II including games! You’d be hard pressed to find these period, but the great people at Cash Converters really do look out for me! We’ve got some Ninja Assault and Time Crisis 3 here! Thanks guys! ^_^



Yet another pretty awesome find at Cash Conveters, would be this Final Fantasy VII for PC. While it’s not complete, since it’s missing the box, it’s still pretty much the best I’m going to get and all, so I’m not complaining!



I’m not too sure, but have I mentioned I love a place called Cash Converters? Just wondering? =D Here we have a Sega Master System!



Old school Sega Master System games! Booyah! The only one drawback with all of these is that none of them have the instruction manuals with them, but for how old they are, I’m not going to bitch about it. We have Alex Kidd: High Tech World, Alien Syndrome, Double Dragon, Ghost House, Global Defense, and Golvellius: Valley of Doom.



Continuing on with the retro games – Hand On & Safari Hunt, Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord, Phantasy Star, R-Type, Shinobi, and Wonder Boy. Damn! Some of these games are actually the good ones for the system!



So, a few of the games were cartridge only, as the system and games were kind of a bundle, still no complaints though. We have Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Cloud Master, Fantasy Zone, and Quartet.



First and foremost, sorry garison! =( If I find another one mate, I’ll be sure to make sure it’s your’s! Here we have a relatively rare The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which I believe was sold only at Wal-Mart in pretty limited quantities (a first for Wal-Mart? Hahaha!), which has both the game AND the Ocarina of Time Master Quest bonus disc in it as well! Simply awesome! This ends my Cash Converters love affair for the past couple months.



A good thing about networking with people or having people know you’re a collector, would be that you can convince most of them to contact you before going to EB Games or Best Buy to trade-in games. I got these from an acquaintance and all for a pretty good price. I got me some: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Space Invaders Extreme (Wry Guy says this game is bitchin’), LEGO Battles, Super Mario 64 DS, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Boom Blox, and Mario Super Sluggers.



Fellow Dtoider and Calgary homeboy Zoel tipped me off about a guy he talks to that was selling his collection, which allowed me to pick up Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX, and yet another Working Designs game in RayCrisis: Series Termination.



After roughly a 2 month hiatus, I also got back into the Goozex groove, which netted me Resident Evil, R-Type Command (Woot! Go Atlus!), Dragoneer’s Aria (Go NIS too!), and Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX.



Believe it or not, incase you’ve forgotten, I actually do buy new games or games from other places besides Cash Converters, hahaha! This is my DS selection and we got us some more Atlus lovin’ in Dokapon Journey and 101-in-1 Explosve Megamix. I also got in on the Scribblenauts action, which was a pretty sweet game, although the controls for moving Maxwell can be annoying as hell at times. We finish off with some Flower, Sun, and Rain along with some Nostalgia.



We’ve got some quality PSP titles here and half of them just might be from my favorite publisher/developer, Atlus . . . <_< . . . >_> . . . hahaha! Here is some Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament, and some ENGLISH (none for you Québec) Half-Minute Hero!



I know there’s going to be some people who are going to groan, but for the price I paid to get a sealed copy of Major Minor’s Majestic March, I’m totally justifying it. I also managed to snag MagnaCarta 2 and Psychonauts from my EB Games as well.



My local Best Buy was also having a mini-sale and all, so I decided it would be the perfect time to pick up The Last Remnant and Valkyria Chronicles.



Websites like RosenQueen totally know how to keep gamers happy! I got A Witch’s Tale along with the soundtrack and digital art collection, Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days with a Laharl in PRINNY form plushie, and Phantom Brave: We Meet Again with soundtrack from there. God bless NIS and extra freebies.



Once again from RosenQueen, here we have the super limited edition of Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy, which has the normal packaged game that has a soundtrack, along with an artbook and giant foldout poster.



So, since I have a “terrible” system (quote possumwrangler) for updating my collection file and such, I kind of arbitrarily get to assign a certain games whatever number I want, but it’s a procedure that close enough to the true number. Still, with my first post in July of 2008 (twas a lurker for quite a while) showing my setup and my newly bought 600th game, it makes me reflect and realize how adding another 400 games to my collection in a couple months short of a year and a half is pretty goddamn obscene! Still, using the collection file that possumwrangler developed and all, as you can see I’m at a solid 999 games, and if you look closer, you can see how it’s broken down as well.



As I said, I kind of arbitrarily choose in my hauls which game I will give honor to for landmarks, and this time around for such a monumentus occasion, I bestow this honor to a game by ATLUS (which I’m slowly continuing my pursuit of owning every North American released game by them) and the critically acclaimed Demon’s Souls! Those who know me know that I would settle for nothing less than the Deluxe Edition, and along side it is the wonderful artbook and soundtrack the most fan dedicated company gave out with preorders. Long live ATLUS and did I mention that I now have 1,000 . . . holy crap . . . ONE THOUSAND GAMES!!! ^_^



This is a picture of my collection file once again, showing the landmark occasion! Let the collecting continue is all I can say!



Now onto the exclusive part of my hauls that some people go straight to. SWAG TIME! In this picture, we have the Scribblenauts Rooster Hat, Mini Ninjas Pins, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Comic, and some Deca Sports 2 Biking Gloves.



In this one we have a Halo 3: ODST Lanyard, a Halo 3: ODST Sgt. Johnson Promo Code, a Forza Motorsport 3 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI Quattro Promo Code, A Boy and His Blob Stress Ball, a Star Wars The Clone Wars Comic – Crash Course, the MagnaCarta 2 Official Visual Book, D-Day Code Name: Overlord Documentary DVD, a Tekken 6 Limited Edition Laser Cel, NHL 2K10 Wii Remote Faceplates, and a Lego Rock Band Keychain.



A few more doodads and such. A sealed Gamecube Broadband Adapter? Heck yes! A Prinny PSP Pouch? Awesome d00d! A great condition Game Boy Pocket? Booyakasha!



So, there are certain series that I’m a HUGE fan of, and Kingdom Hearts would be one of those. I actually HAD the game bought, but since we get scammed of the cool stuff in Canada, I actually RETURNED the game, since it didn’t have the cool slip cover. I ended up ordering one off eBay so I could get the slipcover version, so that will hopefully be in my next update. Here we have the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Postcards, Guide, and Poster. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t come out with a Collector’s Edition version of the guide, but hey, you win some, you lose some. If you’re wondering what the poster under the Kingdom Hearts one, it’s an old Euro 2004 one for all you fellow football fanatics! ^_^



So, here we have the first thing I’ve spent using the thousands (yes, THOUSANDS) of coins I’ve accumulated from Club Nintendo . . . of America. Not going to lie, it’s about time we got something cool and unique like the following 3 posters of The Legend of Zelda. The best part about these posters is that they’re not printed on crappy, easy-to-tear generic paper. They’re actually printed on hard paper and laminated as well. With this one, we have Link’s History, depicting the many variations the Hero of Time has taken up over the years.



In this one, we have a nice scene of Link sailing a boat with the art of The Wind Waker being the main theme here.



Finally, we have a nice montage of all the main characters from Twilight Princess with some nice gloomy coloration that I’m quite a big fan of.



Continuing with the Club Nintendo theme, for being an Elite member for the past year (having over 600 coins registered), I chose to get a Mario Hat mailed to me as my Platinum award, as opposed to the other option of Doc Louis’ Punch-Out!!



So . . . 1,000 games . . . wow . . . simply wow . . . =S Never did I imagine that I would ever approach that many games. For a guy who didn’t really start collecting until about 4 years ago, it just boggles my mind. Looking back at my first blog on Destructoid, showing my setup, 1 year and 4 months ago, when I was celebrating my 600th game . . . it hits you pretty hard to realize that in that time I’ve added over 400 games . . . holy shit . . . holy fucking shit! I don’t even want to know how much money I’ve spent to build this collection, although, I know it could very well be even MORE than I’ve spent, if not for my thrifty hunting. All I know is that this is something I’m very proud to have and something to pride myself on.

With that said, I want to extend an EXTREMELY big thank you to possumwrangler, of whom I’ve known for pretty much 15 years now. My fellow collector, who still has more games than me (albeit, arguably not as many “quality” titles ;-D), but who has been my collecting buddy through thick and thin. God knows how many thousands of dollars we’ve spent at Cash Converters, EB Games, eBay, RosenQueen, etc. Plus, I don’t know how I’d even keep track of this absolute monster of a beast of a collection, without the “collection” file he made for both of us in Excel. Thanks mate . . . thanks! =D Next up would be my “second family,” the employees of Cash Converters. Over the past couple of years I’ve developed more than a regular customer/employee relationship with them, and would proudly call them my friends. A HUGE thanks goes to the one, the only, the man, Diamond Dave! A guy who has gone beyond the normal duty of a salesman to be a brother from another mother to me, and has done more for me, and has been one of the main reasons I’m able to continue my passion of collecting games. A shout out also goes to James, Jeff, David, Dan, Suzanne, Stephen, and Aron. Thanks guys! Zoel also gets a shout out for being my importer and translator when it comes to stuff that’s obscure or foreign to me. He’s the one who managed to get me The World Ends With You (otherwise known as It’s A Wonderful World) DS Lite for me. You da man holmes! Big thanks to all the people I’ve traded with on the RetroForceGO! Great Game Trading Thread. Finally, a GIANT thanks goes to Destructoid! I thank Niero and ALL my fellow Dtoiders for giving me a place to share my collecting exploits and allowing me to show you guys my collection. You guys rock! d(‘-‘d)

With that said, this ends yet another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul. I’m already starting on the next edition, which has one super huge trade from the Trading Forum, and some other cool odds and ends. Thank you for reading this very special edition, and hopefully . . . dare I say . . . here’s to the next 1,000 games . . . ^_^

So, if you read my last blog, I’m running just a LITTLE (pretty much close to 2 months) behind in my blogging and all. Regardless, welcome to yet another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! This is the somewhat enticing PAX edition, due to the massive amount of swag I was able to get my grubby hands on, and some rare games. So, without further ado, let’s look into what I got!



Let’s start off with a couple of kickass cool posters! Here we have a poster of Penny Arcade’s interpretation of a Big Daddy and Little Sister, just in time for 2K Games’ BioShock 2 trailer. This is one of the few games that I’m really excited for and more importantly . . . ACTUALLY PLAY! *gasp* =O Hahaha!



Now we have a Tekken 6 poster that was advertising a tournament at the Namco booth and all, yet they were only distributed there.



Everyone who went to PAX on the first day got a little bag of random odds and ends and such. Pictured here we have my 3 day pass with The Behemoth lanyard, along with my PAX 2009 Instruction Booklet, 2 PAX 2009 pins that were supposed to be used for like “battling” other attendees, and my concert wristbands for Friday and Saturday night.



Here we have the beginnings of a ton of freebie swag! Rockstar was easily in the top 3 for best swag and such at the expo and all. Their booth may have been pretty small/simplistic, but the stuff they just had lying around for people to get their hands on was beyond awesome. To promote Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for PSP and DS, they had freaking Chinese takeout boxes branded with the logo, filled with little screen wipes, Rockstar, Beaterator, and Ballad of Gay Tony stickers, as well as one of the coolest things I’ve seen swag-wise, CHOPSTICK DS STYLUSES! Along the top you have The Beatles: Rock Band stickers, as well as an Assassin’s Creed II and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction stickers. You’ve also got a Nostalgia luggage tag, a special Dragon Age: Origins keycard only if you stayed at the Sheraton in Seattle, a Dragon Age: Origins inflatable sword, Muramasa: The Demon Blade temporary tattoo, and Military Madness dog tag.



Here we have Mark Meltzer’s Research File, which in reality is a really cool and interesting promo for BioShock 2 that keeps the whole “underthesea” theme and all. Then you have a funny and intuitive Assassin’s Creed II insert, where you have to “force” it open, and you end up beheading a nobleman doing so. Starting on the bottom row, there’s a BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger file folder, followed by Hellenbach and Sabre GT papercrafts for GTA: Chinatown Wars.



Let me tell you that being forced to wait in line to play a demo of a game that’s usually lame or too short, in order to get a cool freebie is absolutely, astoundingly, incredibly LAME! The Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story beanie was totally awesome, but I had to effectively wait in line like 2/3 times for it, since you were FORCED to play the demo to get one, and then you have tards who spend way too much time on it, and they only had 2 “stations” setup for it. It took forever to get, but I probably “wasted” like a total of 1.5 hours or so to spend like less than 5 minutes (since you’re FORCED to play the demo as well) to get it . . . -_-‘ At least it’s hella cool. Then you have a freaking awesome promo for you Tekken fans! That is Heihachi Mishima hair that you put on your ears and headband-like thing to make yourself look like him! After that you have an inflatable Phantasy Star Zero inflatable bird thing, followed below by NOS, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, PNY, and God of War III lanyards.



Starting with a big GTA: Chinatown Wars sticker, we also have a demo of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, and full versions of Shaiya (some free online MMORPG) and easily contender for game of the year . . . HELLO KITTY ONLINE! Woo! How can you go wrong with Keroppi or Badtz-Maru? We also have a Darkest of Days mousepad, some ITT mini-flahlight/keychain, a We Love Golf! promo bag or some other, a Miami Law police badge, Deca Sports 2 wristbands, Divinity II inflatable sword, The Saboteur pin, some Naruto pin, a Heartless pin from Kingdom Hearts, and a couple I <3 Geeks pins.



What we have here is a Muramasa: The Demon Blade . . . quasi-backpack . . . for lack of better term (I still don’t know what these kinds of bags are called). Then in the top right we have probably one of the top things I got in Seattle, which took me until Sunday to get a hold of, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle TOILET PAPER! They kept running out of the ones they handed out, or I couldn’t get the locks off the ones they had in the actual bathrooms, but after some perseverance, I managed to finally get my hands on a roll! ^_^ Those two awesome items are followed up by a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic.



Well, if you’re still reading this, you know I’m compulsive, so for some retarded reason, I decided to keep the little advertising cards and such that some booths handed out. From Hudson, we have a Diner Dash/Military Madness ad, coupled with a Deca Sports 2 one. Capcom gave me Spyborgs and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles cards, while Namco actually gave me a pamphlet of Katamari Forever and Tekken 6.



We have a continuation of cards with ones for Nostalgia, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and Sands of Destruction. You also can see ones for Splosion Man, Global Agenda, and a poorly photographed holographic Katamari Forever trading card (I took like 5 pictures of it included and this was the best one). I also got some downloadable stuff for League of Legends: Clash of Fates, Dungeon Fighter, and Mabinogi.



So, Hamza had a bunch of like extra promo swag he was giving away to fellow Dtoiders at PAX, so from him, I managed to snag a Fatal Fury Hat (been looking for one of these forever), a GTA IV Liberty City Police t-shirt, and an effing awesome Japanese Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness file folder thing covered with Laharl, Etna, and PRINNIES! ^_^ Thanks Hamza! You’re the best! d(‘-‘d)



Time for apparel time! I have an affinity for things that are shiny, so the Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City t-shirt was hella awesome! The Diner Dash apron was also a smart and cool idea by Hudson, and then I have no idea what the company is, but every PAX attendee also got a Blabbelon neon orange t-shirt. Finally, we have a Metroid Prime Trilogy t-shirt that you could only get by playing the game, which was already out at the time, but luckily the guy was cool and all I had to do was double jump to get it, aka, skipping actually “playing” the demo.



Here we have a Raven Industries t-shirt for MAG, the kickass cool Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles zombie t-shirt, and a Red Dead Redemption t-shirt you got for viewing the private trailer, which is actually a game that looks to have a lot of potential.



We end the t-shirts with ones for Brink, Wet, and Darkest of Days. Nothing really special about these ones, but free t-shirts? How am I to say no? I’m kind of pissed I missed out on the Left 4 Dead 2 one, but waiting in line to play the demo to get it was FUCKING GODDAMN RIDICULOUS! Even for me! I also missed the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves PAX exclusive one, which made me somewhat of a sad panda! =(



Okay . . . seriously . . . that has to be one of the most bitchin’ t-shirts EVER! It’s goddamn GANGSTA DOMO-KUN with bling, and gold tooth to boot!!! ^_^ If you look at some of my PAX pictures from my previous blog, I tried to mimic the pose on the t-shirt and all, and it was totally awesome! We also have a bobblehead of easily my favorite Futurama (it’s coming back bitches!) DR. ZOIDBERG! I got these from miscellaneous booths, while at the Capcom one, I picked up the Japanese exclusive Viewtiful Joe and Servbot keychains!

TheCleaningGuy, if you're reading this, I give up! Ever since the end of PAX I've been trying to get your proper name and address and such, since I picked up an extra Servbot Keychain that I got since I know someone would want it, and after hearing how your backpack was stolen, decided it was going to you. I was trying to get your proper address and all from others to surprise you with it, but this has gone on for far too long, hahaha! Private message me the necessary stuff, and you'll have your gift from me to you mate!



Here is the PAX booth of the infamous Pink Godzilla (now Pink Gorilla) store and all. GraveRisen, possumwrangler, and I did visit the actual store the day before PAX, but it was pretty bare bones, but they do have a lot of cool stuff and all. I had to resist blowing a fair chunk of my spending money on a KINGDOM HEARTS DSi that I’ve been wanting for some time, but I couldn’t justify spending $400 on it, although, I did come close . . . >_< One day, I shall have one, which will join my The World Ends With You (or you could say It’s A Wonderful World) DS Lite.



So, you people from the United States have a much bigger game selection and pricing scheme, as opposed to your neighbors to the north! Between Pink Godzilla and a Gamestop in one of the malls, I managed to snag a Final Fantasy Anthology guide (seriously, Chrono Trigger AND Final Fantasy VI on one disc! =3), MetropolisMania, a NON-Greatest Hits Kingdom Hearts (this was the last game from my PS2 collection I had to replace, and in my opinion, the most important one), and Mega Man Anniversary Collection. I should’ve picked up Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades as well, since you guys get it used for $20, as opposed to the $40 they charge in Canada.



Here are a few more games I picked up between Pink Godzilla and a random booth with rare games and GREAT deals. Bomberman Party Edition, yet another ATLUS game, one of the harder to get, but not hardest, ones in Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, followed by a trio of Dreamcast games in the form of Gauntlet Legends, Sword of the Berserk: Guts’ Rage, and Space Channel 5!




At PAX, Bill Amend did a panel about his love of video games and how he incorporated them into his comic, or in regards to the first picture, how he created an item and a company incorporated it into THEIR game. In case the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s the creator of the comic FoxTrot! He also did a signing and all, and signed the first one of his books that I got that introduced me to the best newspaper comic, and even drew a picture of Jason greeting myself and my brother (of whom is also a big fan, but didn’t attend PAX).



There was also a long distance RetroForceGO trade that occurred between people from the UK (Tremulant) and Canada (myself). We decided that instead of mailing our games to each other, we’d just meet at PAX and trade in person, and in return, I got a boxed copy of Pilotwings 64 and Harvest Moon 64! Thanks dude, and hopefully we can hang out again next year! =D



Some of the people working at PAX and manning the booths are also some of the most interesting and cool people ever! I talked to a guy at the Muramasa: The Demon Blade/Ignition booth about the game and all, and how in Canada we get scammed on preorder bonuses and such, and asked if he had any of the “wall scroll” (even though it totally isn’t) posters on him. He told me he unfortunately didn’t, but gave me his business card and told me to email him after the expo, and he’d see what he could do for me.



Lo and behold, all I can say is that 47 Communications (the group that apparently does Ignitions’ promo booths and all) is unbelievably effing awesome! =3 I emailed the guy with my address, he responded in less than a day, and he freaking FedEx’d the thing to me. I had it in my hands like a couple days later. So, with that said and done, THANK YOU VERY MUCH MR. ROGERS! If anyone else from 47 Communications reads this blog miraculously, please know that Mr. Rogers is doing a fantastic job and that he is a GREAT asset to your company! ^_^

Well, that does it for yet another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul. As I said, I’m running about 2 months behind and all, so I’m probably going to split my haul over the past couple of months into 2 more manageable blogs, so keep your eyes out for those, as I’ve got some mighty kickass stuff on the way! I've got game number 1,000 coming up as well, so keep an eye out for that!

*WARNING: This blog is text and graphic heavy, as well as somewhat sappy story heavy*

So, I’m a little late with this and all, but I’ve got a lot on my plate. Over a month ago, some sort of gaming event/convention happened. You guys may have heard of it before . . . the Penny-Arcade Expo, otherwise known as PAX. It was something I had been wanting to go to for years, yet never got around to. Ever since last year, seeing all the blogs and pictures from the community, I just knew I had to go this year. So, with close to a year of planning, one member from my crew bailing, and another just magically deciding he wanted to go, it happened. With that, I’ll start with the “less” important part of my trip to Seattle, the actual Expo itself.



Traveling to Seattle and rooming with two of my buddies from Calgary was great fun in itself, but actually seeing the coveted show and all was beyond words. People familiar with me know that I’m quite a compulsive collector of any and all things video game related, so just anticipating the mountain of freebies and swag available for a bunch of games I’m actually interested and all, left me on the edge of my seat. It was pretty typical for what I expected. Lines of people to play games and buy stuff, cool appearances of people, just a lot of cool stuff to see in general. With that said, here are some of the highlights of the expo itself.



So, standing in line to play Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (the first time, just to get a beanie, and having to bail due to the Destructoid Panel), the man himself, Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America, as well as Adam Sessler from G4TV, had a little film and talk about 5 feet from me. I thought it was pretty cool, although, I resisted yelling at Reggie for screwing over North American Nintendo supporters.



There were cool mascots and all around the whole show, but seriously . . . The Prince!?!?! How could I say no? Especially one that was feeling up my DOMO-KUN!



I freaking loved BioShock, so seeing this set that was in reality just a phenomenally done recreation of their “under the sea” set and all, was freaking awesome! The attention to detail and just the amount of cool stuff was awesome. They even had that vinyl record that was featured on the site a couple months ago playing on an old phonograph. I was tempted to add it to my vast collection of swag, but thought twice, since I didn’t want to get kicked out on the first day.



So, I don’t know about you guys, but I love newspaper comics. Attending PAX was my favorite ones ever, and this should make some of you guys happy, he’s a GIANT World of Warcraft fan as well. Going to his panel, and meeting and talking to Bill Amend was one of the coolest things I’ve managed to do. He’s really down to earth, knows a bunch about video games (primarily World of Warcraft, he doesn’t play “much,” as he only has 3 level 80’s and a full Tier 6 set on his Warlock), and was all around cool. He even signed and drew a picture in my first FoxTrot book, which you’ll see in my PAX haul blog.



In terms of “properly” done booths. Capcom probably was the best in my opinion. As it was spacious, had a bunch of demos for games, had the register to get into a demo to get a free zombie shirt, and best of all, actually had a goddamn shop where you could buy Capcom stuff and Japan exclusive stuff. All other companies should base themselves off of Capcom’s booth.



Now to move onto the more “heartwarming” section of this blog. While PAX the show was all nice and dandy, as others have previously stated, the most awesome part of the trip to Seattle is seeing and talking to all the awesome people from the site. Now, with this being my first PAX adventure, I wanted to see the show and all, but I think I had a pretty good balance of doing my own thing with the people I came with, and hanging out with fellow Dtoiders. With that said, I still found myself wanting to have spent more time with you wonderful people, just to talk and hang out. I’ve got one hell of a shout out list, much like Kryptinite that I somewhat sorted into people I had a fair amount of time to talk to, those I wish I did more than a glancing “hey,” and those who didn’t make the trip. Interspersed will be pictures with said people, and stories of why Destructoid is truly an online gaming (not even sometimes) community like none other, and that will probably not be replicated anytime soon. Onto why I <3 Destructoid!



So, if I recall correctly, myself and garison didn’t join the site too far apart. Don’t know if he lurked as long as I did, but finding out he was Canadian and totally awesome was super sweet. Meeting him at PAX and buying him some “children” drinks we shall call them, was cool and I still expect you to come to Calgary sometime and just live in my “museum” for a few days.



Next up, Dyson. Never really talked to you until you started up the RetroForceGO Trading Forum, which got me into using the Forums. Still, listening to you rabble about stuff while drunk out of your mind was awesome! Also, you coming to the realization that I’M NOT WHITE was one of the funniest things ever. Although, after 30 – 45 minutes of listening to it, might’ve annoyed Kryptinite.



Kryp, dude, you are like the most chill guy ever! Talking about our collections, what we’re doing in life, how you proposed to your fiancée, how you’re buying a house, just so awesome man. Good effing times. Also, if you’re still interested in stuff, hit me up with an email or in the Forums. Then we have GuitarAtomik who I just chatted the crap out of with at the Palomino.



Dale North, I don’t think I’ve met anyone else who is as knowledgeable and obsessed with Atlus, NIS, and Working Design games than you, particularly the beyond awesome company of Atlus.



Now, what could I possibly say about Hamza? Standing in line for the Destructoid panel, he comes walking by and simply just says “And you must be Funktastic!” pointing to the DOMO-KUN I was carrying! I don’t think we could possibly ask for a better Community Manager than this great guy!





Yet another fellow Canadian I got to meet was ScottyG. Meeting him and talking about our trades we’ve done and seeing him setup the Destructoid canvas gift to Niero was nothing short of epic. Then we have Mr. Squid himself, Qalamari. Seeing him in his Blue Shell hat, and having a Pokémon battle in the middle of the Elephant and Castle was awesome, plus talking to him and him suggesting having a picture of the CBlog Recappers was pretty sweet. Yet another CBlog Recapper I met was the great Pendelton21. The dude got a freaking TATTOO of Mr. Destructoid on his arm! Talk about dedication and such, but just talking to the dude about both of our future goals and what we’re taking in school, it was just mad chill and awesome. He also apparently thinks I’m “racist” too! ;-D



Now we have a dude who made it to Seattle by claiming he was going to his brother’s “wedding” all the way from Australia, The GHost. The guy went to university in the same province I live in, and just talking to him about his pursuit of a medical degree makes me know he’s one hell of a smart guy and will become a very successful doctor. Then we have a guy who I’ve never even seen/heard about on the site, Volkarin, who despite a super limited budget, made the trip and was just so cool to hang out with. Then we have a guy who is now classified as a “collector” buddy, Necros. The guy knows his special editions, and believe it or not, he finally started Dead Space, hahaha!



I was also fortunate enough to meet Simmy, a Brit I didn’t even know was on the site, and ended up being one of the coolest people I met. Much like bunnyrabbit2, the head of DtoidUK, and just a very cool sentimental guy you can relate to.



Then you have the resident, all around awesome guy in NihonTiger90, who is also getting into journalism and of whom I wish the best to. Ben PerLee. I don’t know what I could possibly say about you that you didn’t already know! I’ll just stick to you’re freaking goddamn awesome! Then we have good old AgentMOO, of whom talking to you about your game and passion for it made me feel all inspired inside.



Now we move onto the list of people of whom I wish I had more time to talk to.





LostCrichton, seeing you as Little Mac was so awesome, and meeting a fellow good natured Asian brother in Hoygeit was also badass. Coonskin05, the guy wears a freaking sailors hat! Do I really need to say more?



Then we have the artist of the Destructoid Comic and artist extraordinaire, Mikey, who is one of the most talented people I wish I could’ve talked more to. That also includes GrumpyTurtle, who I saw/passed by numerous times, but never really got a conversation going with.



Which leads me to probably one of the most well known Dtoiders in phoenix-blood (Hollie), who everyone seems interested in talking to, of which I wish I had the chance to talk to about being a midwife and just how she has time for everything she does!



Then there’s the couple of Nintendoll and Wardrox, who just seem like awesome people.



Now, the problem with a gathering like this is that you don’t get everyone’s name, which is the case in Arttemis/Digital, of whom appears in this picture, so if you could correct me, it’d be greatly appreciated.



Goddamn, meeting my Asian sister was awesome! Stella (Aiya) is just beyond cool! Words can’t explain how awesome she is!



Although, bushofghosts (Maya) would probably fit into the same category and all, even though she comes from Hongcouver! =P



I REALLY wish I talked more to Mr. Fedora himself, Tactix, as his friendly charm and all that is just so seductive! Plus, he actually knows and can relate to my avatar picture of DOMO-KUN, which is totally beyond awesome!



The most chill person around award would probably go to another fedora toting dude in Solgrim. I was him for like 3 seconds, but being able to chat with Technophile would’ve been super cool, same with Chooly, of whom I got like 3 words with. Another dude that has piqued my interest ever since I discovered Destructoid was blehman, of whom I wish I could’ve chatted with, same thing applies to Knives and McSnow. Then on the last night I got a few words in with Senisan82 and rawnewdlz. I saw TheCleaningGuy on the PAX show floor for about a total of like 5 minutes, where I heard a sad story of how someone stole his backpack, which was totally not cool, but people able to talk to the “Servbot Guy” was totally awesome. Then we have another European who I wanted to talk to more, since we both travelled to PAX to trade games, and his name was Tremulant.



Now we have the rest of the Destructoid staff of which I never really got a word in with, all of whom seem to have very different, but nonetheless super cool personalities and such. Colette, your consistently happy demeanor and love of toys and such as shown on Tomopop are a few of the things that translate to everyone else. Ashley Davis, Anthony Burch, and Ashly Burch, you guys just simply rock with your videos and artistic talents. Mr. Rock Band, Nick Chester, I couldn’t stop laughing at your contribution to the song at the end of the Destructoid Panel.



I don’t think any other “face” is more ingrained into the community than your’s Chad. Who could possibly forget Mr. My Birthday Is Everyday, Samit, and Mr. Video Guy in Rey?



Then we have the man himself who is one of the most modest, humblest, and just very relaxed people ever, Niero. The man who had a dream of going to E3, and ended up creating something so much more than he could’ve probably imagined. A man who is literally responsible for bringing all of us together, and if not for his passion and love of video games, very few of us would’ve ever met. To him, as many others of said . . . “thank you.”



Now to move onto the list of those who I wish I could’ve even just met, but unfortunately couldn’t make the trip. SilverDragon1979 and Y0j1mb0, two CBlog Recappers and two men who enjoy sharing their “slightly more elderly” wisdom. God I wish you two could’ve made the trip! Then you have RiotMonster who apparently wants to steal my Halo Wars standee, and I’m assuming since it’s on her sidebar, is a big fan of one of the BEST TV shows ever, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia! There’s also Tales fanatic SakuChan and Prinny lover and super cake creator taticakes. I also can’t forget about fellow super collectors ChillyBilly and WryGuy. And then there’s also my fellow football (yes, it’s call FOOTBALL goddammit) fans CWal37 and deBLOO. Liverpool and Chivas suck! =P Then there’s the Destructoid editors Jim Sterling and Topher who couldn’t make the trip. Obscurer Tribune reporter BulletMagnet, super creators and artists in riomccarthy and Togail. Then there’s the guys online who I seem to have a bunch of conversations with in lastSKYsamura, Magnalon, CharlesSharam, and BenHaskett. Special mention to a guy who didn’t make it to PAX, but of whom I instantly got along with and talk a ton with to nowadays in JoeCamNet.

<Insert picture of fellow Calgarians I somehow didn't get a picture of>

Special praise goes to my fellow Calgarians of whom I’ve known for a while and all got to visit Destructoid daily. Props to possumwrangler (another super collector) and GraveRisen for making the trip with me to Seattle and just being all around great buds. I think Kryptinite has a picture of the 3 of us somewhere, so if you’re reading this dude, throw it up in the comments or something mate! =D Then my other 2 homies who couldn’t make the trip in Zoel (Japanese import fanatic) and sylphx (Persona movie trailer guy) for always being around and putting up with my shenanigans.

Holy balls that was one hell of a shout out section, but each and everyone of you deserved a mention in my book for just piquing my interest or just being all around awesome. Hopefully I didn’t miss out on anyone, if I did, I apologize and just mention something in the comments.

NOW, IF YOU WERE BORED WITH THE SHOUT OUTS, AT LEAST READ THIS PART!

One of the biggest reasons I love Destructoid is because of how much more unique it is compared to other gaming communities. It’s been said time and time again, but you’re not going to find another online community like the one we’re all a part of. With the freedom of expression we’re given in the comments and especially the CBlogs, to how the staff/editors don’t hold themselves upon a higher perch, and actually participate in discussions and read our own blogs. You’d be hard pressed to find another site that has this kind of interaction. Plus, the number of friendships that have formed over not only just gaming discussion, but over just common interests and such, it’s truly a marvel at what Niero has done.

PAX is probably the best example of this. I challenge any of you who doubt me to find another website/gaming community that can get people from literally ALL OVER THE WORLD to gather in one place and just hang out. People from all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, the UK (jesus christ, that’s across the fucking Atlantic Ocean), to even goddamn Australia (and then the Pacific Ocean), to anywhere else I missed, all convening in one place to talk about a common passion, and to just get to know one another better. A group of people that with a common interest, have embraced one another and have forged genuine friendships. A group where some people you meet, you don’t even know their avatar name, let alone their real name, yet can instantly strike up a conversation about gaming or just what’s going on in their lives.





A community where if one of us is sad, then we band together to do what we can to make that person feel better. This situation also happen at PAX, with the ever so lovable and awesome Stella! For those of you I don’t have on Facebook, I originally withheld posting the next picture since I didn’t know if Stella wanted it public, but she told me to throw it up, due to the fact it would bring back great memories, so here’s hoping those memories come flooding back again. I still don’t know the full story, but on the last night of PAX, Stella was feeling sad and all. I don’t know why or what caused this, but all I know is that one of our fellow Dtoiders was feeling blue. Mikey, being the super awesome guy he is, got a card started and was getting everyone to sign it. After what seemed like everyone getting their signature in, he surprised Stella with it, and one of the most heartwarming moments of the entire weekend occurred. It didn’t matter that many of us had never met, nor known about Stella before. All we knew was that she was sad, and we had to do something to make her happy. Literally, strangers, banning together to make another stranger have a smile on her face. Truly memorable.

Here, have a few extra pictures I wanted to include, but couldn't find a spot to put them . . .













With that, I conclude my PAX memories and explanation of why I <3 Destructoid. Typing this up in Word, I got 5 pages, so hopefully I didn’t bore you guys to death. I just thought since I don’t really blog per se, as opposed to sharing my collection and latest video game hauls, that I’d put an extra little bit of effort into this one. Still, continue being a brother (or sister) to one another mates. As I said, I apologize if I missed you in my shout outs or caused your computer to lag with all the pictures, but I look forward to still chatting to all of you here and there online, and also seeing you all once again at PAX West, as I will unfortunately not be able to make it to PAX East. Latez yo!

*WARNING: This blog is EXTREMELY GRAPHIC HEAVY*

*NOTE: Until I get home tonight, some pictures are missing, due to the fact I forgot to black out the addresses.*

Howdy folks! It’s time for an EXTREMELY SUPER ULTRA late entry into A Compulsive Collector’s Haul. So, I’ve actually been trying to get this post up for roughly TWO freaking months, aka, around July. But between working full-time in the summer, going to PAX, just getting a crapload of stuff, and figuring out school and two part-time jobs, I’ve simply not had the time. On top of that, I’m trying to get my PAX blog done, as well as another TWO entries into this series, one for PAX, and one for POST-PAX. Still, enough talking, here is my PRE-PAX haul, full of super awesome win, my 900th and 950th games, one collector’s games going to another, tons of awesome RetroForceGO Trading, a little place called Cash Converters, and gifts from a friend moving away! It’s honestly been so long, I can’t even remember which games were my 900th and 950th so I’ll let you guys just choose. On with the show!



So, a while back, another resident collector on the site, JoeCamNet, revealed he was selling part of his collection and all, in a bid to gather some cash for a gym membership and to pay some bills. Being the super awesome guy he is, he actually contacted me prior to him putting up his story on Destructoid and such, and asked if I wanted to purchase any of his stuff. I feel bad whenever someone I know/a friend has to part with stuff, but I did oblige and I did end up buying quite a lot of stuff from him, at prices that were fair to both of us, unlike some of the insulting offers he received. My homeboy possumwrangler and I took most of the “good” stuff, I don’t have a picture of what the wrangler got, but let’s begin with a Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete. If you follow JoeCamNet’s Goozex adventures, you’d know he’s gotten some pretty awesome stuff, and well, here is the super incredible condition Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete with everything in it. It was even so awesome, it even came with the demo that you were only suppose to get if you bought Vanguard Bandits, another Working Designs game. With this, you get the awesome outer box, map, pendant, hardbound instructions and mini-guide, miniature character standees, soundtrack, omake box, and the game itself.



Yet another rare and coveted Working Designs game, Arc the Lad Collection. As with the previous picture, you get some pretty rockin’ stuff and all. This collection came with a memory card holder, more miniature character standees, some PS2 controller thumbstick covers, omake box, hardbound instructions and mini-guide, and the game itself, which fit 6 discs in there and is one of the craziest game interiors I’ve ever seen.



As most regulars of this series know, I love collecting games from “rare/short print” companies such as Atlus, Working Designs, and NIS. Here are some more awesome things I purchased from good old JoeCamNet. Yet another shiny Working Designs game in Gungriffon Blaze, as well as one of Atlus’ most elusive “sets,” the Deluxe Box Set of Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2! Finding these are a bitch, period! The original came with the soundtrack unlike the reprint, and I finally discovered why I keep seeing 2 different covers for the second game, as it has a reversible cover.



Why can’t more companies learn from Atlus, Working Designs, and NIS, and have super kickass shit that doesn’t cost a lot in their games? Here we have yet another Atlus game in Thousand Arms, which has the holographic card and memory card stickers. We’ve also got some Squaresoft representation in the forms of Front Mission 3 and Threads of Fate. Rounding off this picture are Mega Man Legends and Klonoa: Empire of Dreams.



Just talking to JoeCamNet and such is also a very enjoyable and fun experience. Just chatting about some games, music, and life in general is a great thing, and something that makes the Destructoid community so awesome. Upon hearing that we get scammed in Canada for all the “good” stuff and all, good old Joe decided to toss in some of his favorite region-locked (see what I did there? X3) treats in the form of Peanut Butter Tasty Kakes and Bar-B-Q Middleswarth chips. The Tasty Kakes were good, but infinitely better if you put them in the fridge to get cold first, and the chips were all right, hahaha! Thanks regardless big guy! ^_^ As previously stated, all that stuff was from JoeCamNet alone. I wish the best for you dude, and hopefully everything will turn all good good for you soon!



Another fellow Dtoider and homeboy of mine, Zoel, has a “secret” forum he frequents, which WILL NOT be discussed here, but they have a trading/selling section of which he brings to my attention great deals. From it, I managed to snag both Wild Arms and Wild ARMs 2. Why they have different capitalization for each game is beyond me. There’s also yet ANOTHER rare Atlus and Working Designs game thrown in there, with Tail Concerto and Silhouette Mirage.



Now we move onto the games from my 2nd home, Cash Converters. I got quite the effing huge haul from them the past “two” months and all. Here are the handhelds: Pokémon Sapphire and FireRed, the EVER ELUSIVE Tetris DS, Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, Mr. Driller Drill Spirits, Pokémon Trozei!, a sealed copy of Rhythm Heaven, and Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume.



Okay, so one of my favorite shows on Discovery is Deadliest Catch, which is about crab fishing. I don’t know why, I just find it badass, and now I own the game! There’s also some X-Men Legends on Gamecube, and some SNES awesomeness in Super Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Spider-Man & Venom: Separation Anxiety, and Super Adventure Island.



Once in a while, Cash Converters will have some person sell them foreign games. Usually I pass them up, but not when it’s something awesome like BioHazard 2 (better known as Resident Evil 2 here in North America), along with some memory card stickers and the spine card. We also have Bubble Bobble (one of the GREATEST games of all time), Donkey Kong, and Kirby’s Pinball Land on GameBoy. To finish off this picture, there’s a Greatest Hits *blech* Tekken 3, and a Strider 2 with the games on the wrong discs, which I actually got from another friend.



We’ve got some Technic Beat, a sealed Mark Davis Pro Bass Challenge (okay, I’m a tard, it said Natsume on it), some original Genesis Shining Force, Dual Hearts (which was actually from JoeCamNet as well, and to replace my crappy instructions one I previously had), Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, and Ghost Squad.



Cash Converters + boxed retro games for good prices = happy Funktastic! ^_^ Here we have a boxed Super Mario Bros. 2, Yoshi, and Super Mario Kart, which will replace my cartridge only copies. Prince of Persia is in there as well, along with Muscle Bomber on Super Famicon, which is better known as Saturday Night Slam Masters, and according to Zoel, the Famicon game Getsufuu Maden, made my Konami, which is apparently what Zelda II: The Adventure of Link should’ve been.



Holy hell! Looking at these pictures made me realize just how much stuff I’ve gotten from Cash Converters “lately.” Here we have Shepherd’s Crossing (which looks like a Harvest Moon-like game), Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl, MadWorld, and for all you EUROPEANS out there, some person apparently sold these to the store, so I got a PAL version of Player’s Choice Mario Party 4, the Limited Edition two-disc game of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Super Monkey Ball. For any EUROPEANS that read this, know that you guys have WAY COOLER discs holders in the form of the hexagon and all, than us North Americans.



Shockingly enough, pretty much all that stuff was not “held” for me by the one, the only, Diamond Dave! He was actually on vacation for most of the time when I got that stuff. A couple things he DID managed to snag for me before his well deserved break, was an in box NES Satellite! Seriously! Look at how sexy that thing is! Also, you’ve got an Acclaim NES Infrared Controller. Thanks big guy! d(‘-‘d)



Finally, we have a sealed PlayStation 2 DVD Remote, a kickass HORI 16 Game SD Card Case (actually from Amazon), and an in box Squaresoft version of Final Fantasy Legend III, to go along with my previously had Sunsoft version.



So, this SNES came to me by possumwrangler, who got it from Cash Converters while I was on a family vacation, which they just gave to him since it was already really beat up, the cartridge slot was stuck, and it was without cables. He so elegantly took a hammer to it to make the cartridge slot open, and then I took some pliers and took out those little knubs, which now makes this my Super Famicon essentially! I busted out some Muscle Bomber, and it was totally sweet.



I even got some Goozex games a while back, even though I’ve severely neglected the site in recent times. =( What we have here is another Working Designs title in RayStorm, Command & Conquer Renegade for PC, NIS’s Generation of Chaos, and Contra: Shattered Soldier.



Believe it or not, I actually bought some NEW and SEALED games (with the exception of one) as well! I got me some Big Bang Mini with the holographic outer sleeve, found a used Psychonauts on Assbox at my EB Games, then we have Wii Sports Resort, and a triple hit of Atlus love in Crimson Gem Saga, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, and Class of Heroes.



Oh what? What’s this giant package I’ve received with a buttload of stamps on it? Could it be from some RetroForceGO Trading? I think it is! =D This is my second trade with the super awesome ScottyG! Let’s see what awaits me?



Balls! An in box Super Scope, Metal Combat: Falcon’s Revenge, and Battle Clash! Bitchin’! You have seen a couple months ago what I traded him and all! Trading stuff is awesome! As per with my own little policy, I tend to not mention what I traded for stuff and all, to avoid comments, but if the person I traded with wants to say, I’m all for it.



What have we here? Another package, only this time instead of from a fellow Canadian, it’s come all the way from Puerto Rico! Oh look! It’s from Chie Satonaka!



Fuckin’ rights! Guardian Heroes and In The Hunt on Saturn? Fuck yeah! An in box Super Castlevania IV to replace my cartridge only one, a sealed Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace for PC, and a 15th Anniversary Street Fighter Controller (Ken). This is why trading is freaking awesome! ^_^ Or maybe it’s just awesome if you have something I want! =P



Ah, yet another box! What treasure could await me from joetat3rd?



Goddamn effing sweet! A SNES Super Advantage, which is just pure badass, and Streets of Rage 3! AWESOME!



After a return to sender and a few extra unexpected weeks, a highly anticipated trade with Krow arrives at my house . . .



So much win . . . =D Mega Man 8 Anniversary Edition, Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu, and Solomon’s Key! Yet another round of successful and awesome trades! Thanks guys!



Now here we have an example of how incredibly awesome the Destructoid community is. Most of you probably know of BenHaskett’s foray into the Dragon Quest series series and such. When he was talking about VIII, I had some comments about where he was and things for him to be sure to do and all, and told him my tale of how I had like a “complete” file, only for some jackass at university to have stolen it. Well, after some initial talks and all with kind gestures, and 8 months passing (hahaha), a PS2 Memory Card came in the mail, and voila! A save file of an almost complete file for Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King! He even left me instructions with how to get back to the Dragovian Trials. I will do this justice when I have some time mate, and thank you very much! =3 You kindness will be forever remembered!



Onto my typical swag hauls. We have a Red Faction: Guerrilla Heavy Walker Figure, a set of Dissidia: Final Fantasy Slip Covers, a Statue of Happiness from Grand Theft Auto IV, the Hammerin’ Hero PaPETCH Figures of GEN-san and Kanna, a Wii Sports Resort Frisbee, and a set of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits Drumsticks.



From an eBay friend and all, I managed to get a Harvest Moon E3 Chicken T-Shirt, along with a Super Mario Land CD Single.



Some people are against guides and all, but this one is actually limited, and something that I had been looking for, for quite a while. What we have here is the Collector’s Edition version of the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Guide. It’s hardcover plus it has a super awesome lithograph as you can see, with only 43,000 copies worldwide. Pure awesome right there.



I had another buddy who had to move to Hongcouver for school and all, and was cleaning up his place and such. In turn, he had to get rid of some stuff and I once again feel bad for taking/buying it from him (I just feel really guilty whenever I buy stuff from a good friend and all), but alas I managed to get these plush Winged Cap Mario, Donkey Kong, and Yoshi from him, which apparently use to be sold at 7-11 way back in the day.



Now I feel really guilty about this one, as apparently these figures are quite rare and hard to come by, but here we have some Final Fantasy VIII Figures made by Bandai. I have to figure out where to put these and all, as I’m drastically running out of space. It was interesting to see which characters they decided to put in for this set of figures.



Depending on who’s looking at this blog and all, I may have just made a ton of you all jealous and such. As we have here some Final Fantasy VII Figures that were also made by Bandai, featuring pretty much everyone’s favorites. Once again, I owe this to my buddy who wanted to sell them to me, since he knew I’d give them a good home.

Well that’s it for another edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! With massive 2 and 3 hour breaks between all of my classes, I’ve finally found some time to work on my backlog of blogs. I also have some long overdue shout outs to some members, such as GrumpyTurtle mentioning me in one of his blogs after a long absence, CWal37 for his mad epic and awesome SNES haul, for Wry Guy for giving a shout out to me in his “Trading With Personality” article, and for ChillyBilly for being another collector who posts his stuff. As I stated at the beginning of this blog, stay tuned for a PAX and POST-PAX edition of this series, and some long hard thought thoughts about PAX and Destructoid in general. Until next time, laterz!

Holy balls! So, I’ve been trying to get this post up for like the past 2 weeks, but a crapload of birthday parties, work, and general shenanigans has prevented otherwise. In this edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul, you’ll see stuff dating back from around like mid-May and all, where Video Games Live occurred, followed by some birthday presents and such, then just all around awesome stuff! In pretty much a month, I got OVER 50, yes, goddamn FIFTY games! A lot of them are pretty freaking awesome ones too! Going to try to do this chronologically, but enough chitchat though, on with the show!

*WARNING* This a graphic heavy blog!



For those of you who don’t know and all, Video Games Live is a concert put on by Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, two of the most distinguished video game music composers. This was their second time coming to Calgary, and it was nice to see/hear the different songs they played this time. Things they changed were like how last time they came, they had the Video Game Pianist’s SISTER do a Final Fantasy Medley, while this time they had the man himself come, and even had him redo his internet famous, blindfolded Super Mario World Medley. They also had the inventor of video games, Ralph Baer appear live via satellite as well. God I’m rambling now, hahaha, but one final note is my buddy won the Guitar Hero contest AGAIN, and therefore got to play live on stage, and won me some swag and all. You’ve got the Video Games Live – Volume One CD signed by Tallarico and Walsh, along with their 2009/10 World Tour T-Shirt. The other CD is a special Video Games Live burnt CD with like HUNDREDS of OverClocked ReMix songs! I also got a program with the signatures of Tallarico, Wall, Martin Leung, and Splitting Adam, who are guys from EA Vancouver who did the theme song “On My Own” for Need for Speed Undercover.



Next up we have the same t-shirt as before, just the other side of it, with the autographs of everyone that was mentioned before as well.



Cash Converters. Possibly the greatest store/shop in the world, in terms of getting awesome/rare games at very reasonable prices. So, still prior to my birthday, I hit up my gloriously awesome hangout and came out with some pretty sweet stuff. Kirby’s Dream Land, Kirby’s Dream Land 2, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Replacement for a crappy faded Player’s Choice version), Mega Man III, Mega Man V (which has now been traded away), and Castlevania: The Adventure. Pretty sweet GameBoy haul if you ask me.



Continuing on and such. We’ve got some DS games up next, with: Star Fox Command, Bomberman Land Touch! 2, My Japanese Coach, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time.



So, apparently Cash Converters accepts some crazy ass import items as well, so I also picked up a Famicon version of Super Mario Bros. 3, along with Mega Man 2, a Famicon NES Adapter, DJ Max Fever, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (to replace my cartridge only version), and Galaga: Demons of Death.



So, with Wry Guy’s most excellent write-ups about Goozex and all, here’s more proof of how awesome it actually is. Getting games like Brave Fencer Musashi and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo from the mail makes me smile with glee! Getting other games like Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars, LOL, and Brave Story: New Traveler is also hella sweet!



So, here’s some more PS2 games that Goozex is adding to my collection, which now stands at over 150 for that console alone. Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, a SEALED copy of ChoroQ (which is a pretty rare Atlus game), and Gitaroo Man!



So, a buddy of mine who is going to Vancouver for a year to advance his DJ’ing career and all, gave me some of his surplus gaming stuff for my birthday and all. I got me some instructions for Final Fantasy Legend II and Final Fantasy Legend III, as well as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX. I also netted me a box and instructions for my now complete Final Fantasy Adventure. Some awesome swag stuff he gave me were: a Metroid Prime 2: Echoes CD Case, Wild ARMs 2 Poster, Squirtle and Flareon Figures, a Nintendo 64 Controller Clock Keychain, and a .hack Cell Phone Charm. Best wishes and all DJ ArcKade! d(‘-‘d)



Another homeboy of mine, possumwrangler, got me some sweet stuff I’ve been looking for, for my birthday, while he was in Florida. Gradius III, What’s Cooking with Jamie Oliver (freaking love his cooking!), and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, which had the soundtrack in it and all! Super awesome, thanks bud! Plus, it aids in my quest to collect ALL ATLUS games!



As I’ve said before, I’ve established what I would deem as a FANTASTIC relationship with the employees of the Cash Converters I frequent. This absolute gem was actually through my buddy James who works there, as he called me when he found out his friend wanted to sell this bad boy! I won’t say how much it cost me, but it was a PHENOMENAL deal! Freaking Growlanser Generations (Deluxe Pack), with everything in it, still in good condition! Soundtrack, Watch in box, Necklace with Power Gem Ring and carrying bag, sealed Playing Cards . . . so much goddamn win! This also helps in my somewhat newly acquired obsession of also collecting all things Working Designs.



All right. Now we’re bouncing back to some more actual in store Cash Converters stuff. I got me some Pokémon Colosseum, Wario’s Woods, Ephemeral Fantasia (which apparently has the most difficult Guitar Hero-like mini-game ever), and Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition. I also did a private sale with another employee who’s mega awesome, Jeff, and got me a better condition Parasite Eve that actually has instructions, and Parasite Eve II.



Regulars to this series know that I often associate with a higher being of such awesomeness, he needs a name that transcends said awesomeness! Pretty much the coolest guy around, who I’m proud to say is one of my homies, Diamond “Freaking” Dave, gave me a ring one night to get to the store. Little did I know what super kickass stuff awaited me. Also note how he is SO goddamn hardcore, he even has “Diamond Dave” as his nametag . . . truly godly!



Goddamn Dave is fucking awesome! So, we being with all 3 Xenosagas. I already had the first one, but it was that ugly Greatest Hits bullcrap, so now that situation has been rectified. Oh what? I have that then I have TWO more Atlus games following in the form of Tsugunai: Atonement and Magna Carta: Tears of Blood, in box and all, although I got kind of owned on that one since there was no poster in it . . . so ANYONE who is willing to part with that poster, send me a Private Message, hahaha. Ending this picture is Wild Arms 3, which for some reason, the series alternates the spelling of “arms” between “Arms” and “ARMs.” Not pictured are the 3 Shadow Hearts that I picked up as well, so I could trade on Goozex. It was a pretty goddamn sweet haul Dave Lee (as he sometimes calls himself to Asianize himself) got for me, haha!



Here be some more awesome from my homeboy! Replacements of Lagoon and Dr. Mario for my cartridge only versions, Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition, The King of Fighters ’99, Soul Blade (which is somewhat unfortunately Greatest Hits), and Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth.



You know what else is freaking awesome for getting games? Something you should involve yourself in RIGHT now . . . the RetroForceGO Great Game Trading Thread of Justice!! I had me a couple trades with Roshey and Magnalon. I traded away a couple of my duplicate gems, for some other gems in return, in the way of X-Men: Children of the Atom, and yet another Working Designs games, Silpheed: The Lost Planet! Thanks guys for the awesome trades!



So, now I guess we’ll move onto new games or games bought from places other than Cash Converters, hahaha. RosenQueen is easily the best place to order NIS games and such, with their awesome highly collectible promo items they hand out if you preorder through them. I went out and got myself (well actually possumwrangler made the order) a Red Scarf Prinny Plushie, Cross Edge, and the promotional Exclusive Postcards! I question why a Prinny would run from Felicia, Morrigan, and Lilith though . . . <_< . . . >_> . . . just wondering . . . hahaha!



So between Best Buy, EB Games, and HMV, I managed to snag: Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Away: Shuffle Dungeon, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation (this was $10 new and with the Bluetooth headset), Puchi Puchi Virus, ZooCube and Princess Debut.



While this picture is full of DS Atlus win, I’m still lagging behind on collecting them, particularly a couple on DS and a bunch on PSP that have recently come out that I’m missing. We have Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier, The Dark Spire, Steal Princess, and Knights in the Nightmare! Three of them with soundtracks, and Knights in the Nightmare with the extra Atlus Spoils of the artbook Tome of Lost Souls.



Goddammit! Why can’t bigger companies get their shit together, and reward their “loyal” fans and buyers properly? Atlus, simply put, is the best! They can bundle, have promo stuff, soundtracks, etc. with their games, while keeping the game cost still “normal,” while companies like Nintendo and Square Enix have only started, and somewhat halfassedly, with their “rewards” programs and crap. *sigh* Straying back onto topic, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon with Raiho Plushie? Fuck yeah!



Time for bitchin’ swag! How can ANYONE possibly go wrong with a Mr. Resetti Plushie? I also now have the other Viewtiful Joe Bobblehead, featuring the titular hero himself, to join my “normal” Joe Bobblehead, as well as the HMD T-Shirt that he wears as well.



Some guides I managed to pickup/were given to me. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Game Boy Game Secrets, 1999 Edition, and a Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles Guide!



A couple more kickass guides in the form of Pokémon Crystal and Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem.



Now THIS is what I call a mini-motherload in terms of guides! A better condition Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (easily my most favorite game ever, and I gave my other copy to possumwrangler) and Chrono Trigger. Damn these two guides are sweet as hell!



Let’s see, we’ve got some Grand Slam Tennis Grips, PlayStation 3 Pen Lanyard, Video Games Live Bag that was given to my buddy for being the Guitar Hero contest winner, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Demo Disc, Chrono Trigger Extra Soundtrack, James Bond: Quantum of Solace Map Pack Token, and a Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times Wizard’s Hat Stylus. The Nintendo shaped items are in reality all holders for candy, with Blue Raspberry Sours, Nintendo Power Mints, Zelda Mints, and Wii Peppermint Gum.



Last but not least, we have a NES Max Controller and an in-box Soul Calibur II Limited Edition Universal Arcade Stick, both purchased from good old Cash Converters.

Holy balls that was one hell of a long edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! Hope you guys didn’t mind me sharing it with you guys and all. I’ve SERIOUSLY got to start saving for PAX and all, but I’ve already somewhat started cataloging my next haul, but I’m really trying to tone it down. Although, it’s really hard, when you’re a compulsive collector. If you like more rare and shiny games, from a company like . . . oh you know . . . Working Designs . . . and such. Stay tuned for my next edition!

This is starting to get plain ridiculous! Long story short, I had a bunch of school, and then a bunch of work, and then a bunch of miscellaneous catching up to do, so this haul is dating back upwards of a month. Regardless, CHILLYBILLY said he was expecting some pretty EPIC stuff in this haul, so hopefully I don’t disappoint! When you don’t think you could possibly love a place any more than you already did, my hangout of Cash Converters just keeps outdoing themselves! You’ve got Earthbound and Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete from there, a bunch of RPGs along with Atlus lovin’, a couple of kickass games from Goozex, super dope soundtrack from ANUS MCPHANUS, and my first 2 trades on the RetroforceGO Great Game Trading Thread of Justice!!



We’ll start off with some RPG and Atlus lovin’! Grandia II on PS2, Dual Hearts by Atlus, which is pretty much a Zelda clone, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (to replace my ugly Greatest Hits version), Ruff Trigger: The Vanocore Conspiracy (Hey! Shut up! It has Natsume on it . . . <_< . . . >_> . . . -_-‘), Wild ARMs 5 (Series 10th Anniversary Edition, which comes with an artbook), and Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. All from my local Cash Converters courtesy of the super epic Diamond Dave!



The satisfaction I feel when I get something other people want, has got to be one of the best feelings in the world, in regards to some of the stuff I pick up at Cash Converters. This applies to a couple of guys who were lurking in the store when I picked up this stuff (mainly the Phantasy Stars and the next couple pictures), and they inquired if the stuff my buddy Diamond Dave was holding and bringing out to me was for sale, and he told them “No, unless this guy (aka, me) doesn’t want it.” Then I just smiled and thought to myself how it’s awesome I get kickass stuff since I setup and created an awesome relationship with super cool people. Then I heard them talking to each other about how it was hella lame I got all the awesome stuff . . . =D Continuing on though, Spider-Man and the X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge, Phantasy Star Collection, Phantasy Star Portable, Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life, and Reel Fishing, which is possibly the lowest rated game I now own, but which I picked up because it had Natsume on the cover . . . >_<



Jesus christ! In 2 days I managed to get TWO copies of Secret of Mana (one in box, but with no map or instructions) and freaking EARTHBOUND! I owe James big on this one, since I believe these came in on a weekend, aka, when Diamond Dave doesn’t work! The best part, none of them cost me an arm and a leg! =D I won’t say how much, but Earthbound was a downright steal! ^_^



Holy hell! Freaking LUNAR! Yes, some Mom who was cleaning out their kid’s basement brought this in to sell to Cash Converters, and I am lucky enough to be the recipient of literally a PERFECT condition Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete! It’s so freaking shiny and awesome!



Pretty damn good condition box, all 4 discs in mint condition with no scratched and no cracks in the case, nicely folded cloth map, and the hardcover instructions/guide without a single crease or anything! I pretty much <3 Cash Converters and everyone who works there! CHILLYBILLY! This EPIC enough for you? =P



So, I follow up that awesome stuff with 2 more awesome games courtesy of the super kickass Goozex! Norse by Norsewest: The Return of the Lost Vikings, and Grandia II on Dreamcast with awesome soundtrack! I think everyone at some point should play The Lost Vikings games, as they’re so awesome with how they get you to think and carefully plan your moves!



Some random stuff from various retailers. Tokyo Beat Down, Pikmin 2, Hammerin’ Hero (which was preordered, but since I live in Canada I got scammed out of the figures, if you have them MESSAGE ME NOW, and we’ll work something out), and God of War: Chains of Olympus.



Here is more typical swag and stuff I got somewhat recently. After like almost 6 months, I finally found my Gears of War 2 Lanyard. I got me a Nintendo DSi Keychain from the Nintendo Rep that came into my Best Buy on the launch of it as well as some Personal Trainer Post-it Notes. To top it all off, a Resident Evil 5 Limited Edition Laser Cel, and a Pokémon Snap Guide.



Those of you who are fans of the “Beyoncé game,” may be jealous of these awesome wall cling things that I also managed to get a hold of. They’re pretty cool, and can join my Kirby Super Star Ultra one until I can find a place to properly put them.



Oh my! What’s this? A package from the UK? Dated April 14th? (A little look into how effing far behind I am on updating). Could it possibly be?



Bitchin’! MadWorld soundtrack I got from entering ANUS MCPHANUS’ contest. Super badass awesome! Thanks mate! Twas really awesome of you to give them away and all! ^_^



Kickass! Another package! Only this time could it be from the RetroforceGO Great Game Trading Thread of Justice!!?



Fuck yeah it is! This is the contents of my trade with SCOTTYG! I got me some Super Bomberman 2 in box, which has possibly one of the BEST Bomberman multiplayer levels EVER made, in terms of Map 10. He also threw in a Vault Dweller’s Survival Guide from Fallout 3, a Deca Sports Wristband, a Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 Pin, a Star Wars Patch, and some cool pins! Thanks mate! =)



Holy shit! ANOTHER box? =O Could this box be totally full of win too? RetroforceGO Great Game Trading Thread of Justice!!?



You’re fuckin’ rights it is! Yet another trade I made, only this time with DYSON. He sent me freaking Magic Knight Rayearth WITH the bonus stickers as well! So much win of awesome epicness!

Goddamn this was one LONG edition of A Compulsive Collector’s Haul! I really have to get crackin’ on the next one like RIGHT now, as I got a crapload of more stuff, and I got some pretty AWESOME Video Games Live stuff! Until next time, stay tuned, especially if you like SIGNED stuff! =3