Christmas Present Ideas – Geeky Guy

I said before I left for my holiday that from the start of December, until the last Wednesday before Christmas I would be posting Christmas present idea lists up on my blog. I’m not going to do your casual present guides, instead something a little different, and quirky. For my first list my boyfriend is here to give me a hand with a geeky guy present ideas! Him being a geek himself, this is pretty much his wish list for Christmas. So I hope you enjoy his choices, and they help you get any ideas for those geeky men in your life!

Howdy everybody! Natalee is still away on her holiday, so she has roped me in to do another post. It’s coming to that time of year where we openly let a fat bearded man into our homes and steal our milk and mince pies. I never understood why we do that but that thought is for another day!

With Christmas coming up I thought it would be a good idea to give people ideas on what presents to get a geeky guy like me. I know Nat has some difficulty getting me presents as I tend to buy stuff when and if I need it, and I am pretty sure it is the same for a lot of guys out there. My dad in particular is pretty hard to buy for as he isn’t really interested in much. So to give you ladies, and even guys a helping hand with what to get any of the neckbeard* men in your life.
*www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=neckbeard

• Xbox Elite Controller

I’m an Xbox loyalist; I will state that straight away so forgive me if your man has another console or belongs to the master race (PC). I don’t believe there is an equivalent for the PS4 and the master race will always praise using mouse and keyboard so this is not for them. This is one thing that I am really looking forward to getting. The customisation, the responsiveness… It just looks cool, and so on. Just watch this official video:

The only drawback is the price, at £120 it is pretty steep for an accessory that most people probably don’t need. That is why I have asked for assistance with getting mine for Christmas, I could get it but I can’t justify buying it myself for the full price.

• Star Wars Battlefront Special Edition PS4

I suppose an alternative is the Star Wars Battlefront Special Edition PS4. It just looks tasty with the Darth Vader print on the front, funky looking limited edition controller, and general presentation. It also gives me an excuse to be a double agent in the console wars. It is more expensive than the controller so it isn’t really an alternative at all, plus it will never beat the limited edition R2D2 Xbox 360 with sounds and lights. However, for those that want to splash the cash, for those who may be into it, and for those without a PS4 it is a great present. I know Nat really wants one for herself!

• Nendoroids (and I suppose Pop! Vinyl Figures)

I am a bit of a snob when it comes to figures, even though I am new to collecting them. Due to this I don’t know names of other brands other than these two and could never see myself buying the proper expensive ones no matter how cool they look. They really would be too unfair on my bank account.

http://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/4553/The+Colossus+Titan+TAKAYUKI+TAKEYA+Ver.html

Personally, I dislike Pop! Vinyl figures. As the brand has grown in popularity the quality seems to have diminished. I don’t like the look of them, they are manufactured in greater quantity so the paintwork tends to be iffy at best, and there isn’t much to them other than they’re a potentially cute looking figure. They are very easy to buy, popular, and cheap brand of figures so yeah, go for it if you’re on a budget, or there is a particular figure that will appeal. Older figures like Nat’s Wall-E are really decent, whereas newer ones like the Colossal Titan seem badly made. If there was one I would get it would be the Brotherhood of Steel Pop! from the Fallout collection, as I have had my eye on it for a while. Otherwise I’ll tell you about Nendoroids, a figure that I think will give you a hell of a lot more for your buck.

For those that like a bit more quality to their figures, Nendoroids are the way to go. I already own a fair few of them; nearly all the Attack on Titan collection (just missing Cleaning Levi), both Kirito and Asuna from the Sword Art Online collection, Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, and the Star Wars Stormtrooper.

They are manufactured by a Japanese company called Good Smile so a lot of their products are based around manga and anime, making them the perfect gift for someone who loves that sort of stuff. They are incredibly well made, pose-able, and all come with unique accessories that reflect the character. Some examples being Solid Snake has a cardboard box, the Stormtrooper has a blaster, and Mikasa has her red scarf.

The drawbacks with Nendoroids are availability, price, and variety. You can see them at conventions (but be careful they’re not fake!), and very rarely in places like Forbidden Planet but the best place to get them is online. Always use trusted partners (http://partner.goodsmile.info/support/eng/partnershops/) or shops other people recommend like Sushi Noms, Crunchy Roll and so on. Due to the way Good Smile release them affects how easy to acquire they are. You will find it difficult to find older figures outside of eBay and even then they have a chance of being fake or overpriced. Speaking of price, they can be on the expensive side. For example, I got Nat a Mawaru Penguindrum (Google it) Nendoroid which I would consider quite rare for just over £20. That is good, right? On the other hand the Pokemon Red is priced up at £160… Yes, that much! Then there is the trouble of bootlegs which there is a major issue with. Good Smile does bootleg warnings which are great and helpful, but you still have to be careful. I fell victim to it using eBay. It looked real on the pictures, but I could tell instantly it wasn’t when it arrived, and returned it straight away.

Even though these are some issues, I still recommend Nendoroids over anything.

• Games (Fallout 4, SW: Battlefront, Just Cause 3)

Games are a simple easy present to get. They are released constantly and if it were me I would be happy to receive any game, hell even Viva Pinata! Just check out the hype for the upcoming games and maybe take a little look at their current collection and it should give you a good idea on what sort of games they’re into. At the moment I am playing Fallout 4 and Star Wars: Battlefront and anyone would have a blast playing either of those. The problem with these though is they are out already and said person who you’ll be buying for will have most likely bought them already (like I have), so what do you get? Well one idea is to buy something similar to what they have already, no harm in that is there? An older game I want is the Master Chief Collection, I’m glad I didn’t get it at launch because it was shrouded in problems but they have fixed them and it would be a great addition to any Halo fan boy. I already own the original Xbox and 360 copies of Halo 1,2 and 3 so I would love to be able to play them on my Xbox One.

You could even go retro, have they ever spoken about the good old days playing the Sega Mega Drive or the Super Nintendo? You can find them pretty cheap on eBay, I got hold of a Mega Drive for £30 and it included 10 games. Mega nostalgia for any gamer!

What if you want to get something new for them? Or your partner has everything already? Or you don’t know the difference between Battlefield and Battlefront? Or you can’t work out why you shouldn’t get Duke Nukem Forever?
Well the answer to that really is Just Cause 3. Why? You ask. Because explosions. Every man wants to be Antonio Banderas and not look at explosions and this game gives you all of that with no risk of being branded a terrorist or creepy for trying to be Antonio Banderas.

Antonio Banderas isn’t actually in this but I think the character is based on his [film career] life. It is a silly game that you shouldn’t take seriously, but that is what makes it fun. I have played the two original games and they are beautiful and amazingly fun to play another game that anyone would love to play. I am actually looking forward to it coming out in December. That is why I am suggesting it as whoever you may buy it for won’t have it just yet so it makes a perfect present to get. Just make sure they haven’t pre ordered it!

The best advice I can give for when buying games is to ask them straight up what, if any, games they would like. Then you have no trouble. It may ruin the surprise, but if they are anything like me I appreciate the thought that you want to get something I am actually interested in rather than having to feign happiness that you got me Ride to Hell: Retribution because you saw I liked Sons of Anarchy (FYI: It is a terribly bad, bad, bad, bad, baaaaaaad game).

If you really want to surprise the gamer, make the notes of what games they have and go into any gaming store. GAME staff in particular are incredibly helpful and although they want you to buy stuff regardless, I still feel like they want to help you.

• GAME Gift Cards
  

When I say game store, I don’t specifically mean the chain of stores. You can buy vouchers for pretty much all the major game outlets. Xbox store, PlayStation Network, and Steam all have gift cards available, and depending on what system they use you can tailor it to them. If all else fails, get GAME gift cards. Anything that helps me buy more is always welcome.

• Portal Board Game

I recently got this to play with Nat, but we haven’t got round to playing it yet. It took a while to understand the rules, we were tired and it was late so please forgive us for not being able to truly review it. Most gamers and geeks will know about the video game Portal, so this is a brilliant gift for any fan of the series. Valve, the creators of the series, are probably one of the biggest hitters in the gaming industry so you can’t miss what they have released. Not sure when it released but I had no idea about it until I randomly spotted it in a Games Workshop. It looks fun and I hope we get round to playing it soon. It would be a great gift to open on Christmas and play with the family.

• Stormtrooper Costume

I don’t really know what to say to persuade anyone to buy this…

http://www.stormtrooper-costumes.com/24,stormtrooper_costumes.html

… But I am damn sure I want one.

A full PVC outfit of a Stormtrooper with holster and blaster would be fudging amazing! I have always wanted one, but that price is a bit painful on the soul, if I had one…

• Stocking Fillers/Novelty Clothing

These are awesome little ideas that you could buy someone. I know that I have largely focused on gamers with a heavy dosing of Star Wars but this is really for any geek. There are tons of websites and shops out there to get little presents and random bits of clothing.

Here are but a few:

www.gamer-heaven.net

www.redbubble.com

www.forbiddenplanet.com

www.crunchyroll.com/store

www.tokyotoys.com

www.sushinoms.com

www.tofucute.com

www.animuk.co.uk

Just look on the websites for whatever they are into and you can easily find something. If it is clothing I would recommend sticking with T-shirts as not all nerds and geeks are confident enough to walk around wearing a Naruto jacket, a Survey Corps hoody, or even like having to explain what their clothing is from. Most people don’t understand how adults can be into these “childish cartoons”. Not even when Lucy from Elfen Lied tears people in half creating a bloody massacre whilst strolling naked through a military complex. T-shirts allow people to express their interests, yet be able to cover up when visiting grandparents. There is nothing more awkward than having to explain over a cup of tea why the cake is a lie. Just don’t put them in that position!

• Shit-Bucket

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Shit+Bucket

Stay with me here and give me a chance to explain.

I don’t necessarily mean buying your partner a commode and letting them excrete into a bucket, unless you really want to. I mean giving them the gift of letting them zone out and enjoy their games. Book a day off work for them (and yourself), keep up their supply of Monster and Doritos (possibly with melted cheese), and take an interest in what their playing. I know it is hard to just watch someone play but having support from loved ones means a lot, it’s the thought that counts. Hell, you could even empty the bucket for them…

I joke.

So there you have it, my quick gift guide for that special geeky person in your life. I don’t want this to be limited to just guys as I’m sure some women out there would appreciate the intricacies of a poop bucket. So if you have a geeky guy or girl hopefully they would appreciate some of these things that I myself would love to receive from the bizarro burglar know as Santa.

Ciao for now!

Thanks again to Dane for writing this post for me! The last present idea really did make me giggle! What did my readers think of his ideas? Make sure to let me know in the comments, Dane will be reading them whilst I’m away on holiday.

I’m away for another week yet so I’ll see you all when I get back! Take care.

Hyper Japan 2015 Part 1

I have struggled to start this post because I just didn’t know how to start it, and due to that it’s actually a day late… Oops! I’m literally just going to throw myself into it and ramble on about things in the order they occurred on the day, which I’ll warn you was long and also picture heavy! I also bought quite a few things at Hyper Japan or was given plenty of freebies, which you can see above, but I’ll go into more detail about those throughout the post.

This post is actually going to be split into two parts, because as I’ve been writing it, it’s just appeared to be WAY too long! So I’ll have part one up today, and part one up tomorrow!

Although we were shattered, we were ready for Hyper Japan and made sure we got up bright an early to get a big breakfast and then head over to the O2 where the event was happening. I’ve never been to the O2 in London before so I was in shock when I saw how big it actually is. But to get there we took the cable cart over which was pretty cool, although I was really anxious when we went over the first time, damn anxiety!

We arrived and the queue was ridiculous… However we had paid a little extra to get fast registration tickets, so we were lucky and didn’t need to wait in that queue. I later read online that it took people an hour to just over it to get into the arena. Not good! We had a bit of trouble waiting in the queue but for once my anxiety didn’t hold me back from voicing my concerns and I spoke to a member of staff about what was happening. Basically, people were pushing in and then laughing at us all who they had pushed past. Me raising these issues got us to the front of the queue, which we couldn’t complain about.

When we finally got inside we were even more excited! The O2 wasn’t that busy but it was sure heaving with restaurants. It just meant if we didn’t wish to eat at Hyper Japan, we had some choices around us.

There were various places you could visit at Hyper Japan including, Eat Japan, Hyper Fringe Market, J-Culture, Hyper Kawaii, Hyper Live, and the first place we visited, Hyper Game & Anime Park. This was probably one of the funnest places for us so it being the first place we went into was pretty awesome.

As the name suggests the Game & Anime Park was of course full of those. Nintendo was of course the main gaming event in there with loads of different demo areas for various different games, as well as a huge stage where members of Nintendo were talking people through new and upcoming games, as well as some cool events happening. We went there to watch about the latest game from Animal Crossing, Happy Home Designer (I’ve already pre ordered it!). I’m a huge Animal Crossing fan so I was super excited when we were told that event was happening on the stage. We watched the whole thing and due to being such awesome people, we were given a free Mario Kart 8 keyring, which I gave my boyfriend.

As well as that there was also a Playstation 4 console where people could demo the new Sword Art Online game, which is coming out in autumn this year! Exciting news for Sword Art Online fans like me and my boyfriend. We both had a go on the demo which latest about ten minutes and it was a pretty straight forward game. There was a huge queue when we first went into the Game & Anime Park so when we went in for a second time, that’s when we got to have a go.

Of course due to Nintendo being there, they also had some of their Amiibo items on display for people to look at, which of course we did. The ones I got most excited for were the yarn Yoshi ones, which have come out to accompany the Wii U game Yoshi’s Woolly World. They come in three colours, my favourite of course being the original green Yoshi. These are made out of real wool so not only do they look like little woolen figures, but they actually are!

Going back to Animal Crossing and the new game Happy Home Designer, these are coming out alongside it so it was nice to have a look at the cards that will be coming out for it. You use these cards to call different villagers and people in the town then and there instead of waiting ages for them. It was also nice to discover that Nintendo are bringing out an add on for old 3DS, and 2DS ‘s where you can use the cards, instead of needing to but the new 3DS.

Not long after the event where the people of Nintendo were talking about the new Animal Crossing game, a Pikachu suddenly waddled past us and over to the main Nintendo section. We followed it to discover that you could have pictures with it, so we got in the queue and got our pictures taken! It was so adorable and I wish we could have gone back and had some more pictures of it. But alas, we had things to do.

Before we left the Game & Anime Park I had a quick picture (or two!) with a massive Colossal Titan head that had been blown up with air for people to take pictures with. It’s from Attack On Titan, one of mine and my boyfriends favourite manga/anime. My boyfriend didn’t bother having any pictures with it, but I made sure to take advantage of it, as it was pretty awesome and the picture I got of me with it is definitely one of my favourites from the day.

We picked up a few bits and pieces from the Game & Anime Park and my boyfriend was lovely enough to buy me a handbag. I had my eye on it since the seller announced they would be selling them at Hyper Japan over on their Facebook page. When I told them I wanted to buy one they were lovely enough to let me look over the bag I got to make sure it was okay and such, which of course it was. It also came in a dust bag which I love! I keep it in there when I’m not using it to keep it nice and fresh looking. It’s a dupe of the Samantha Vega handbag which I’m fine with, as it’s a nice dupe and when I’ve used this bag since me getting it, it’s amazing quality and is really sturdy and great! I’m super pleased with it, and for £35 it was well worth the money. My boyfriend also bought me some green tea matcha Kit Kat’s, which were only 80p each! By far the cheapest ones in the whole of Hyper Japan.

We moved over to the other areas of Hyper Japan and probably spent most of our time there looking around all the various stalls and stands.

This is the Tofu Cute Candy Festival and something we visited twice because we loved it so much! For just £6 we got all these treats to eat and try, so we got two of these. There were various things we got from Pocky, Kit Kat’s, chocolate, sweets, and as you can see on this picture, a green tea matcha mochi, where was delicious. It was a great way to sample things before buying them in the shop next door. The shop was so busy too, it was probably one of the busiest stalls of the day.

As the Saturday Hyper Japan day is split into two separate events people are told they need to leave for half an hour whilst the event is swapped around so before we headed off we ordered a picture to be drawn of us together, as well as picked up a picture of me that someone had drawn in the Fringe Market.

We also decided to grab some food from the Eat Japan section. We bought some tuna onigiri, and to the Japanese onigiri is like a sandwich to us, which I LOVED! They were two for £6, which wasn’t cheap for but for how filling it was, it was really nice. I think we’re going to try and make these ourselves in the future.

Then we headed back to the hotel as we were pretty shattered and wanted to drop off some of the stuff we had bought, as things were beginning to be quiet heavy. The queue for the cable cart was long! But luckily we were alright and soon got into a cart with some people. I felt a lot more relaxed the second time we rode it and I would love to go on it again in the future.

And whilst I was going to continue talking about Hyper Japan, I’m going to stop for today and call this part one out of two. This post is just turning out to be way too long to fit into one post without it not beginning to be boring.

So tomorrow I shall talk about the second half of Hyper Japan in part two!

What do you think of my first Hyper Japan experience so far? Did you go to Hyper Japan? Let me know in the comments.

Until tomorrow, take care all.