Guess who fought through the overseas holiday shipping rush and caught the first plane ride home to me and arrived via regular airmail in ONE WEEK flat?

THIS pointy-eared, pointy-toothed, teal-colored, food-loving Munchlax, that’s who!

Soft, smooth-furred, squashy but firm, and sitting over 60cm tall, what’s NOT to love about this plush Munchlax?

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PRODUCT – 5+/5
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AT FIRST GLANCE:

When I said that the plush Munchlax is soft, smooth-furred, squashy but firm, and sits over 60cm tall, I was not joking in any way, shape, or form.

Examining the plushie from all sides shows that the Munchlax is not only well-stuffed but stuffed mostly evenly as well.

If you look especially at the ears, you will notice the complementary symmetry between them and this sense of symmetry is repeated throughout the rest of the plushie’s structure which makes the plushie very nice to look at and gives the plushie a sense of quality.

Added to that sense of quality is the simple fact that the plushie Munchlax actually LOOKS like a Munchlax. From its carefully embroidered-on eyes and paw pads to its two little teeth and two pointy ears and the extra layer of fur covering his lower body, this plush Munchlax has few competitors when it comes to both quality and adherence to canon in terms of its appearance.

Have a look!

What a match, yeah?

MATERIAL WORLD:

Though the pictures don’t do any justice, the outer material – a very short-haired fur-like + flannel-like blend – used for the plushie is of very high quality which results in the plushie having a bit of a lustrous shine and being super smooth and super soft to the touch.

Unlike plushies crafted with longer-haired fur material, this Munchlax plushie is less likely to shed, is less prone to collecting dust, and is – hopefully you will never have to do this – easier to clean.

Smoother and silkier to touch and easier to care for – what’s not to love?

Moving on to the details, the Munchlax plushie has no hard parts as most stuffed toys typically do for eyes, nose, and/or a mouth. Instead, the felt-like eyes have the pupils embroidered on and the eyes are sewn on like patches are and so are the brown pads of his feet. The claws of his paws are crafted of a rougher felt-like material and the end result is a stuffed plush Munchlax who is squashable everywhere without a single hard piece of crafting hardware anywhere.

TAG TIME:

To be honest, I had been shopping around for a plush Munchlax for a long while before I ended up selecting the one I did. I wasn’t a fan of how some of them looked and I definitely wasn’t a fan of some of the prices, either. As the plushie would be for my own personal enjoyment and my own personal enjoyment only, having a branding tag wasn’t too terribly important to me.

That being said, when I purchased this plush Munchlax, I purchased it with the notion that it came with no hang tags (hanging tags) or tush tags (little branding and care slip that is usually attached to the rear end of the plush) as the product pictures didn’t show any tags whatsoever despite the plushie being labeled as being manufactured by Banpresto.

Imagine my surprise, then, to see this:

Tags!

A folded, glossy, cardstock-printed hang tag from Banpresto and a Banpresto tush tag indicating the year it was manufactured and from what series!

Opening up the hang tag reveals that the hang tag is tri-folded and that on the inside of the hang tag is space to register yourself as the Munchlax’s ‘Trainer’ (I’m sure it’s ‘owner’, but people don’t ‘own’ Pokemon, yeah?).

In addition, there is an inscription on the inside of the tag that reads: For Use as Prize in Japan Only.

For those of you who are familiar with that phrase, you probably know what those words mean. To those of you who aren’t, it means that this plushie was originally manufactured as a prize for use in an official UFO Catcher Doll machine which is a claw machine game where you slot in money and maneuver a claw around to try and grab a hold of an item (in this case, UFO Catcher dolls!) in the machine.

More a skill-based game combined with a bit of gambling, the prize inside the machine ‘costs’ as much as the money you spent in attempting to get the prize and that is if you managed to snag the prize in the first place.

As a fan of claw games whose skills need (a lot of) polishing, I can tell you you right off the bat that grabbing this Munchlax plushie would be nothing short of a royal headache. Rotund, smooth, and with precious few protruding parts, grabbing this Munchlax would be like trying to grab ahold of… well… a very round Munchlax!

Man oh man.

Maaan oh man.

OVERALL:

To close this review, I’m going back to my original sentiments.

Soft, smooth-furred, squashy but firm, sitting over 60cm tall, and looking like the real Munchlax from the Pokemon series, what’s NOT to love about this plush Munchlax?

Absolute nothing, that’s what!

Geebuz, but I can’t help but love this plush Munchlax!

Over and out,
Aith

Have you ever bought an item or won an item in an auction on eBay thinking that you had won an item of a specific sort only to receive the package… and then realize that there were surprises in store for you?

It’s been a while since I’ve received any surprises through eBay auctions, but I guess my Tonberry card was feeling neglected because it suddenly activated on me and what was already a good bargain became a VERY unexpected (but much appreciated!) steal of a deal.

The item in question that became a steal of a deal is this:

Originally, I was bidding – or I thought I was bidding – on just that – the Pokemon HeartGold version boxed game with the manuals and Pokewalker accessory for the Nintendo DS and DS Lite.

After some communication with the seller to (ironically) confirm the contents of the auction, I made my bid and then won the auction for less than $30.00 with Priority shipping included.

Because I wanted to catch the Nintendo Wi-Fi Mew event before October 30, I asked the seller if they would mind shipping it with Priority if I volunteered to pay the additional shipping. They agreed to it and promised to try and ship ASAP as long as I could make my payment in time.

The payment was made faster than you could yell “Pokemon!” and after that, it became a waiting game… that lasted a grand total of two days. The package shipped on Monday and it reached me on Wednesday (today).

I was definitely anticipating the arrival of the package so I was really happy (and relieved!) to see the package in my mailbox and after taking care of the other pieces of not-so-interesting mail, I set up my table to get ready for a photography session.

In the middle of cutting open the bubble envelope, I realized that the package inside… was bigger than my SoulSilver box.

Wait… what? What was going on? Didn’t I buy the HeartGold version of the game?

I hurriedly cut away the rest of the top of the envelope, reached inside, and pulled out THIS:

WHOA! Talk about surprises!

Here I thought I had won an auction for the game set ONLY… only to receive the Wal-Mart limited edition bundle set that includes the boxed game with the Pokewalker accessory, a Ho-oh and HeartGold-themed Pokewalker jacket with a wrist strap, and a Ho-oh figurine!

Since I had only purchased the game set with no extras I thought that maybe some of the items in the bundle were probably missing and so I opened up the box and pulled everything out to see what the deal was.

Maaan oh man. Just take a LOOK at this!

I was kind of expecting for something or other to be missing since I had made the assumption that I was buying the game set only (the game box with its contents that you saw in a earlier picture), but inspection of my package shows that NOTHING is missing.

The limited edition Ho-oh figurine is there and so is the limited edition Pokewalker jacket cover with its matching wrist strap. Despite the box being a bit squashed in some places, everything packaged inside the box is in near-mint condition.

I guess when the seller told me that everything was nearly new and barely used, they really meant it because… wow. Just… wow.

Yeah.

I’m definitely surprised and for once, it’s in a good way!

Not only did I receive my package in record time for it having traveled across the country, but I received way more than I had bargained for besides.

Way, way cool.

To the seller who sold me this item, “THANK YOU; you really made my day and I hope you like the glowing feedback I left for you!”

Over and out,
Aith

Previously in THIS POST HERE entitled Achieving a Perfect Grade where I reviewed the Perfect Grade Necklace Set featuring a sterling silver replica of Squall Leonhart’s Griever necklace and a scaled down replica of his Revolver gunblade on a keychain, I mentioned that I used to work with fine and bridge jewelry.

So… yeah.

Once upon a time, I used to work with fine and bridge jewelry (including fine watches) where I was constantly exposed to high end sterling silver and other jewelry crafted from fine metals along with fine watches. In addition to selling jewelry I also inadvertently became something of a jewelry appraiser and jewelry consultant as customers would frequently bring in their (older) jewelry with questions on authenticity and repairability.

In the industry – just like in the collectibles field – there are guidelines to follow when determining a piece of jewelry’s authenticity and quality and after all those years… I think I can say that I know a thing or three about both authenticity and quality.

With that said…

I’m going to just be straight up about it.

It REALLY pisses me off to see all those knockoffs of the official Griever necklace replica passing off as the ‘official’ real deal.

Why?

Because fans are regularly getting jipped out of their money for knockoffs that they believe are the genuine article because the sellers are selling them and marketing them as the real thing.

Even worse, the knockoffs aren’t even good quality, but… do the fans know?

For a lot of them, NO. In fact, a lot of them – many of whom I have encountered in the past – have no clue that they not only own a knockoff but a low-quality knockoff to boot…

Which brings me to this next bit:

Here’s a quick down and dirty rundown on how to identify a knockoff:

• IF THE METAL IS STERLING SILVER it will be heavier than all other conventional knockoff materials and will bear the mandatory .925 stamp somewhere that indicates its status as genuine sterling silver
• THE CHAIN IS CHEAP in looks and feel and isn’t smooth, highly polished, heavy, and thick
• THE PENDANT LOOP FOR THE CHAIN to hook on looks like an upside down U
• THE STAMP ON THE BACK SIDE, if it has one, IS MISSING PARTS of the official inscription (most notably, the © SQUARE engraving)
• THE PRICE IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE because the original non-sterling version was definitely worth more than $25.00 and the genuine sterling silver is worth WAY more than $25.00.
• IT IS A RE-RELEASE because Square only ever released that particular version in a single run and that’s IT.

If you ever wondered at the quality difference between a knockoff of the Griever pendant and the real thing, I would have to say that you have NO frickin’ IDEA just what a HUGE difference there is.

Even in comparison to the sterling silver knockoff (YES, it most certainly IS a knockoff as it does not have the official stamp on the back like mine does and Square stopped manufacturing that particular official replica ages ago) being sold at myimportstore.org which advertises it as:

the real article – the genuine thing, the Real McCoy, whatever you want to call it – EASILY outclasses it.

How?

1) QUALITY of the pendant

If you read the comments, you will see that there is a manufacturing issue that renders the bottom point of the pendant bent. The original sterling silver one is in no way, shape, or form, BENT which is easily proven by looking at my close-up photos.

Also, if you didn’t catch what I wrote earlier, I will reiterate and say that Square only ran the FFVIII jewelry pieces for this particular replica for a very limited time (and in the Perfect Grade sterling silver case, a limited number of 10,000) and EVERY SINGLE sterling silver Griever piece put out by them was stamped/engraved with “Sleeping Lion Heart”, Silver, the required .925 tag, and © Square.

You can verify this stamp by looking at my picture of the back of my pendant and also the picture of the sticker on the back of the box. You can also verify that Square (now known as Square Enix) stamps all of their official merchandise from phone straps to figurines to statues to games to jewelry by looking at any other officially licensed Square Enix merchandise.

Conveniently, I have pictures of a similar sort of stamping/engraving done to an official metal phone strap that came as a decorative item attached to my Sephiroth Eau de Toilette bottle as shown here and in my review post.

Thus, if you ever bought a sterling silver Griever pendant (likely from myimportstore.org or someone who purchased from them or from their same supplier unless the pendant was handcrafted) whose stamp/inscription (if it even has one) does not match the one in my photograph, you can be assured that what you bought is unfortunately NOT the genuine article.

2) QUALITY of the chain

Again, read the comments about the chain and about how cheap it looks and feels and how it has even broken off for some. There’s no doubt about it; the chain that comes with the knockoff is a CHEAP Junk Shop-worthy chain.

The funny thing is, in all actuality, stainless steel is a really good metal to use for jewelry owing to its inertness and it is normally quite hardy in addition to being stable which is why there is a grade of stainless steel called “implant grade” which is used for surgical implants and body jewelry. Furthermore, a lot of cookware is made of stainless steel because of the same stability and durability. Bearing this in mind, if the stainless steel on those necklaces aren’t holding up, then there’s something wrong with the quality there!

In comparison, the chain that came with the original is HEAVY, THICK (seriously, think of a juvenile snake), HIGHLY polished, and of all things it does, it does NOT discolor in the same manner. If you looked at my pictures, you will agree that I am simply stating a simple fact.

Here’s another idea of how solid the real chain is:

That little clasp/clip that clips one end of the chain to the other so it can be looped around the neck? The end of the clip has stretched out a bit after ten years of wear because of the total weight it was forced to support.

Yeah. Heavy.

Remember that aside that I wrote about O rings? Here’s a perfect example of how a pendant and its chain can stress a connector piece too much.

3) MONETARY value

$200.00 USD for THAT thing?

Really?

For only a necklace whose only sterling silver part is the pendant and whose chain looks and feels cheap and has proven itself to BE cheap and, given what I have explained about the properties of stainless steel which you can easily research and confirm yourself, may not even be stainless steel to begin with?

Yeah. NO.

It’s not only a knockoff with questionable quality, but a ripoff as well compared to both the original prices for the official replicas – BOTH the necklace-only non-silver run AND the limited edition 10,000 Perfect Grade boxed set – and the market trend for silver.

If these knockoffs were actually a hoard of the originals, then the pricing is understandable as both the inherent value and material value has appreciated over time. But these are unofficial KNOCKOFFS that have quality control issues besides.

So why pay more – a lot more! – for a knockoff?

Yes, silver prices are skyrocketing through the roof, but… they’ve been selling their pieces at THOSE prices even BEFORE the prices for silver went climbing.

In other words, in case I didn’t say it clearly enough:

RIP. OFF.

This one up here whose pictures are worth a thousand words and whose quality and craftsmanship in ALL WAYS has lasted me constant use for ten years with minimal changes in quality?

Or this one down here whose chain – according to first person reviews! – pictured is actually NOT the chain that is shipped (and, according to the same reviews, the chain looks and feels cheap to boot) and whose pendant has a bent tip?

Yeah.

Even if you can’t hold it in your hands and then wear it around your neck to see with your own eyes in person and feel for yourself what the non-photographic differences are, the differences that can be seen through photographs alone – and especially given what the complaints are about the chain; the company is falsely advertising as the chain shipped is NOT the chain pictured! – stand out and NOT in a good way.

Someone else beat me to the punch by posting their thoughts on the knockoff version in a product review and I couldn’t agree more though I would have been harsher.

My review?

Yeah. Definitely harsh, but I stand by my words because I know what the truth is.

I have been an original owner for ten years and I have worked with sterling silver for almost half of those years. Where some things are a matter of personal taste and opinion, there are some things that are a matter of fact – facts that I have taken care to explain, illustrate, and even demonstrate.

But… hey.

If YOU are happy with whatever version you have, great. It’s YOUR money and if you’re happy with how you spent it, awesome!

Just don’t tell anyone who has ever encountered the real deal and expect them to agree with you when you say that, “it is just like the original!”

‘Cause it isn’t.

IT. JUST. ISN’T.

Over and out,
Aith

So after reviewing my two most recent fan-related acquisitions to which I lost my wallet to, I found myself a bit nostalgic for my gaming past. Since my last two reviews involved the Final Fantasy franchise (FFVII to be exact), I figured it would suit to reminisce a bit on another Final Fantasy-themed item I lost my wallet to several several years ago.

Shortly after Final Fantasy VIII for the PlayStation and PC was released in the States, Square aka Squaresoft (as the company was known at the time) released a limited run of jewelry pieces that were replicas of the various pieces of jewelry that the characters wore in the game.

In particular:

For the character Squall Leonhart, there was a full-sized replica of his Griever necklace. Along with it was a miniaturized replica of Revolver – his gunblade – on a keychain.

For the character Rinoa Heartilly, there was a full-sized replica of the silver Griever ring that Squall had given to her in the game strung on a silver ball chain.

During the limited time run of these jewelry pieces, there was also a limited edition run of 10,000 pieces of what is called the “Perfect Grade Necklace Set” that bundled up a .925 sterling silver Griever necklace along with the Revolver keychain and two trading cards all packaged together in a black jewelry display box.

As I had enjoyed the game immensely (it was my second ‘real’ exposure to Final Fantasy – second after FFVII), I made the decision to splurge on the Perfect Grade boxed set when I saw them first appearing on eBay. Being that I was (and still am) something of a fiend when it came to heavy, high quality sterling silver jewelry back in the day, it was a no-brainer for me to choose the sterling silver version over the non-sterling version.

I shopped around a bit and after I made my decision on which seller to buy from, I approached them and asked if they would consider putting up a Buy It Now auction for the price that their last Perfect Grade set had sold for. After some emailing, the seller decided to let me directly purchase the set from his website and within two days, I had the (very heavy!) boxed set in my hands.

Of course, I opened the box and… well, how about I let you see for yourself?

Fast forward ten years and I still have to marvel at the craftsmanship and quality of everything – especially the Griever replica.

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PRODUCT – 5+/5
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With a handsomely detailed sterling silver scaled-to-size pendant buffed to a super shine and super smooth finish paired with a super heavy and super thick matching chain, the Griever replica is more than on par with other fine sterling jewelry in terms of both aesthetics and quality.

The same intricacy and attention to detail is reproduced in the Revolver replica, though at this point, it shouldn’t be a surprise given the exactness of the Griever replica.

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PACKAGING: 4.5/5
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Lastly, the box itself is a great finishing touch as it serves as both a protective storage case and a protective display case for the necklace and keychain set (plus two official trading cards). With its velvety black inner jewelry card and satin-y white lid/door liners, the box’s quality and aesthetics is on par with the jewelry boxes that expensive fine jewelry gets packaged in.

The only thing that I don’t like about the box is its locking mechanism as it uses a snap-button to hold the two ‘doors’ closed. Perhaps a more solid locking mechanism could have been implemented as the snap-button implementation eventually broke on me. Considering how it has all the amenities and qualities of a classy jewelry box, why not use the snap-hinge mechanism that most jewelry boxes use?

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OVERALL – 5/5
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All in all, the Perfect Grade Necklace Set featuring an official sterling silver replica of Squall Leonhart’s Griever necklace and a mini replica of the Revolver gunblade was more than well worth the money I spent in terms of quality and value and the overall quality and craftsmanship has held extremely well over the last ten years.

Snap-button issue aside, the only noticeable change in quality has been with some of the coloration of the Revolver replica which, quite frankly, I expected owing to its metal composition. The Griever pendant on the other hand has stood up to ten years of wear and I haven’t had to do anything to it besides give it a nice polish with a silver polishing cloth to keep it looking like new. The only thing that has changed is that the thick O ring connecting the pendant to the chain has discolored a bit over the years, but that was/is to be expected owing to the metals used.

Considering I used to sell fine and bridge (sterling silver and simpler gold pieces, for those of you who have never heard the term) jewelry back in the day, I think I can say in good faith that I have a solid eye for these sorts of things – that I am able to say with confidence that I know quality and craftsmanship in jewelry when I see it…

Which brings me to my next post HERE entitled Knock It Off!…

Over and out,
Aith

Without further ado… the Scents of Final Fantasy VII… in Pictures:

Hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Over and out,
Aith