Really happy that I had set a goal and had enough time to psych myself to work towards it.
The keyword I was focusing on was contentment, I was trying to be less materialistic which is a prevalent trait in an O blood type I have learnt recently as well.
Shall proceed on with the going ons for that day, I went on the first day last Friday.
Reached the venue at about 11.30ish and there was plenty of people as usual.
Headed towards the Creator's Hub first to check out the fan art stuff, with a budget of 80$ which includes entrance fee (13$ this year) and food (i put aside 20$) there is honestly not much left.
Looking back on how I spent in previous years, it was alot of mindless and impulse purchases.
A whole lot.
I really learnt alot with all the clearing that I did in my display cabinet and drawers.
I need to have an even more mature mindset, to indulge in such hobbies.
Focus on a certain character and narrow the types of merchandise to collect (e.g. badges, keychains, posters, etc)
I find myself always buying alot of posters and badges in the past years and have realised that to maintain the condition of them is really difficult to an extent too.
There were a couple of badges that were starting to rust which breaks my heart, but i had no choice to discard them. I need to figure out a way to keep them in pristine condition.
Quite a number of artists have quoted pretty prices on their merchandise. $8 was the highest I paid for a keychain, while the cheapest was $4
I was amazed I had refrained from getting stickers because it was really honestly just the easiest way to throw the money away, with most of them going for $2 a piece with the average size 7 x 5 cm
There was a lot of hard thinking to do on the spot that day.
Really had a hard time, every corner of the artist alley was just temptation.
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| postcards of scenery from Your Name movie, Suga Bunny, DaiSuga keychains, Allmight badge The rest are for other people |
For the total damage it was $46, 22$ were stuff for myself.
This is on average how much it costs at the artist alley.
Imagine the official/licence goods booths around the rest of the hall?
Money literally passing from one hand to another on all 3 days of the event.
Around the artist alley, if there was an emoticon to describe the most popular series it would be this ❄
Almost every other booth was doing some sort of merchandise for Yuri On Ice, which is not a surprise at all. But honestly after awhile it got too repetitive for me.
Just a thought, because YoI has opened up alot of minds in a sense to the other communities.
It's interesting to see it being so well received, because I thought that being in an Asian community there would be higher levels of conservatism. Maybe though the exception was that the event saw more people of the younger age group below 40s I guess?
Also alot of artist stuff are basically fanservice to cater to audiences fantasies (fetishes too?!)
I think alot of younger ones need to realise it, this might see temptation to buy alot of stuff on impulse.
I'm a mindset convert now.. Mimalist and Mindfulness convert.. At least I try to convince myself
The art was really good though, lots of people I saw were buying posters and keychains like no tomorrow.
Quite a few artists were doing Jojo merch, but my budget and mind restrained from getting any.
My best bet was to stick to Haikyuu.
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| Outside the Muse booth, Jojo part 4 Diamond is Unbreakable 😊 |
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| they brought in the Jojo Kuji as well. So shocked! 😲 |
Really wanted to try it but I had previously watched people open them on yt so I decided that better to save some money instead of trying and if I got a low price I would be pretty upset.
So much inner conflict..
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| Mimikyu display 😄 |
Also happened to chance upon FLOW at the Amuse Inc booth. They were having a handshake session with fans who probably bought the VVIP tickets for Anisong.
Strangely I was more concerned on taking a photo of NICO Touches the Walls shirt then of them
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| Honestly though, You Can Do Better than this |
I don't get the designer idea of it, really.
And I had another thought, I was thinking about how band concert tees have the list of countries that they tour but couldn't they have like the set list or slogan on the back instead.
Because, of course they would cover most of the major cities in the world and (i wouldn't care less about the dates) but like... other than that I really don't see the point in it.
Like if they were that famous of course it is a no brainer they would tour those countries right??
Well, I just have a slight gripe over such a weird small issue, which i guess marketing people don't care about.
So much thoughts...
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| Dio hat |
It was really pricey, 35$
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| Japari Park Penguins |
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| some really cute official mascot figures in food related poses |
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| look who's hiding in the cup |
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| Black Butler is back with a movie i think |
I got my ice cream fix but not from there,
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| rich in calcium, milk that is. |
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| took this to show a colleague |
One Piece is still going strong after so long.
😁
Overall, I would say that it's a good thing to have a change of mindset and a budget for such an event.
Change of mindset i hope is to grow and learn to mature because the world is not as i think it seems to be always.
Naivety is for young minds, skepticism would take it's place for the older minds.
Something I heard.
Will update in a separate post on other happenings soon.
Looks like I might be watching a couple more movies this year end as well!