Boxes are f***ing awesome. You can do so many different things like build a play fortress, use it to sneak around like Solid Snake, create a Danbo, use it as a pedestal, use it as a desk, anything. But there will always be one purpose for boxes and that’s to store items. But in situation of an otaku, it’s a package to have your precious merchandise mailed to you, and with Supnova Sydney 2008, that’s no exception. Many may have remembered from my Animania 2007 merchandise post that I spent a good $1000 AUD, this time it has gone beyond that. So hit the jump to check out what’s in the box.

By the end of Saturday, Roobar and I were pretty buggered and we decided that it was time to collect. Like all the previous conventions the two of us have always placed an order with Tamarket on items that we missed when they were originally released, or we see something we never saw before, or just the really rare items. The past few conventions I had to horde most of the purchases by myself, or employ the help of some friends, but this time I dragged Roobar to help me out.

This image courtesy of Bubby.

The best thing about collecting our box, it had my name written on it. Roobar thought it was funny how Tamarket was using our box to hold up their cashbox as it meant our box was that much more special. I offered to help him carry it but since my hands were full of other items it couldn’t be help. Though I bet you thought we had everything in the box, nope. In fact we actually bought more items from Tamarket and actually started making a pile of stuff for them to place on hold. So in essence, its like a box of loot plus more.

Unfortunately the box was so large that it had to sit in the back seat of my car, whilst everything else went into the boot. I haven’t had my car this full of merchandise since Supanova Brisbane a few years ago, and trust me, that was quite an effort. So after a few hours we opened our box of loot and this is what was in it:

Taken with my camera phone, this is all of Roobar’s orders, well I think it’s all of it though he had so much stuff lying around it kind of gets all mixed up. A lot of nendoroids and Fate figures and even 2 of the Moyashimon plushies. I kind of regret not ordering some of these myself. Now onto my items:

Firstly, these items were not bought at Supanova Sydney, but in fact Kinokuniya. I made a trip into the city to take care of some Japan trip business and went to Kinokuniya afterwards. This is what I bought at Supanova Sydney:

It certainly was a lot more than I had anticipated as I had a budget of $350 AUD. But I should have known better than try to even set a budget when it comes to convention time. Reason for the budget was because of the upcoming Japan trip, but luckily I still have at least 5 and half weeks to go. The Miku mousepad is actually a gift from Tamarket which is a way to say “thanks for spending so much gold with us”. Roobar got himself a Fate/Stay Night mousepad.

Though I guess you are all wondering how much this cost in the end. Ok well lets break it all up:

• Box of Merchandise: $1083 AUD
• Extra purchases from Tamarket: $360 AUD
• Kinokuniya purchases: $160 AUD
• Items from clubs: $7.50

So that pretty much comes to a grand total of $1610.50 AUD. So we have beaten last year’s Animania record by hundreds. Keep in mind this was a combined effort of me and Roobar. The original order from Tamarket was much higher than what the box contained but due to some items being out of stock it couldn’t be helped. I can already imagine seeing my End of Year Expenditure report is going to be quite somewhat unique this year.

But now that the Australian convention scene is over for me, it’s time to look forward to the bigger picture. Summer Wonderfest, Comiket 74, and Chara Hobby. It’s going to be my best trip to date!