Vegas in July | Click to enlarge

Sorry folks, no anime or figures this time, lol. But like I mentioned in Mimi’s blog, my ex-wife’s little sister Lisa has been successfully living (and thankfully paying rent) at my house for the last 6-7 months. More recently, her Boston Terrier named Guiness was moved from her ex’s place and joined us last month, lol… So I thought, since it’s about that semi-annual time of year to post some self-portrait shots, why not? Here’s a big batch of photos taken on July 4th and today July 31st… Enjoy! I’m pretty sure, Miko-chan will, lol. ^_^;

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Operation Woodstock | Photo taken Feb 2008 | Click to enlarge

Hey all, pretty big news!… After 6 long uncertain months (since Feb 2008), 2 different agents (Toni then Angie), and over $100K drop in value (from $360K down to $249K), I finally emailed Angie the Realtor my decision to *NOT* sell the house after all. And guess what? When she called, she was laughing because *THAT* was what she wanted to hear! She couldn’t or didn’t want to tell me that, because she wanted it to come from me, my own decision. Can you believe that? Although she lost a client, she hasn’t lost a friend… or a possible blind date for one of her girl friends, haha. ^_^;

Here’s the email I sent her on Friday (July 25th).

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Christine the Blade | Click to enlarge

Yes, she’s finally done! Following *Akiko* in my *Girls with Attitude* series (lol) is *Blade* (black/white version), based on the Muay Thai (kickboxing) fighter Christine Toledo, and commissioned by Alias Fight Wear. Can’t wait to see how the T-shirts look, lol. ^_^

P.S. Coming soon is *Blade* the COLOR version! And after that, *Bleach* for Jennie L and *Violet* for Miko. That is, unless something else pops up to disrupt the order? =.=;

Orange Arria in Colored Paper, March 1990 | Click to enlarge

Has it been a week already? Well, a few days ago, I told *Chun* the following: “I always plan to scan or take photos of my ancient anime line-art from the 1990s (when I still believed in pencil-and-paper, lol), but something always seems to pop up and get in the way…” So finally, after some shooting and digging, here they are! ^_^;

1> The first 5 photos were taken a few days ago: Orange Arria in Colored Paper. Completed March 1990, it took about 20-30 hours total. Wow, except for some fading in her blue armor, the design still holds up 18 years later! One of my proudest works, hehe. I just threw in the “Pocky” box to give a better idea of the 20×30-inch scale.

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My Toybox Blog Layout | Click to enlarge

Hi, in the same spirit as Danny’s newest blog changes, I’ve decided to update the layout of my *Toybox* blog. Essentially, I’ve reorganized the center column: (1) moving my favorite blogs and sites to the top, (2) inserting the “Daily Updates” from my website to help fill in the gaps between less-frequent posts, and (3) lifting the more-lively “Danny Choo” posts above the lengthy “Category List”. That’s about it! Plus, it’s a good time to take a snapshot of my blog, more than a year after its rebirth, lol.

P.S. Okay, after a morning of packing more magazines and books (arghhh), gotta get back to drawing “Blade 1″ (Day 2) for fighter Christine Toledo (Blog 136). My first commissioned anime-art project! ^_^;

Six Degrees of Lolita | Click to enlarge

LOL, this sounds unbelievable but maybe not?

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Your Rarest Figure | Click to enlarge

Which is your rarest figure? We’ve seen the newest favorites, and the biggest wastes, but the rarest?

For me, I’d have to say my 1/8-scale-resin figure “Arima & Yukino” (from the classic-anime love-story “Kare Kano” or “His & Her Circumstances”), released by the now-defunct Tsukuda Hobby back in the late ’90s. If I hadn’t seen the anime, I would never have found it. But in January 2007, through sheer luck in the Amazon Marketplace, I stumbled upon it (original box included), and after several months of waiting for the perfect time, I finally used 3 Amazon gift certificates to afford it! Luckily, nobody else was looking for it, lol.

Here’s the March 2007 photoshoot.

P.S. Just for my own reference: Blog 044 and Blog 093.