When it comes to collecting anime figures, I am by no means the biggest collector around, but I do have a sizable collection. Every now and then I will get someone asking me how and where I buy my figures, so I thought I’d write a short guide to buying anime figures based on my experiences. If you are relatively new to the world of anime figures, these tips should help you on the right track.

Buy From Reputable Shops

Many first-time figure buyers end up buying bootlegs simply because they can’t tell whether a store is legitimate or not. Sometimes buyers may not realize they’ve bought a bootleg until they see an authentic figure up close, and by then it’s too late to return it. Generally, stores that sell figures for less than MSRP are selling bootlegs unless they have a special promotion or the figure is on clearance. If you aren’t sure what the price should be, check the manufacturer’s website.

Stores to avoid are those based in China and Hong Kong. I shouldn’t have to mention this, but avoid Ebay like the plague. I have seen many figure collectors complain about bootlegs that they bought from Ebay sellers with ratings of 99-100%. In contrast, three highly recommended stores are: AmiAmi, HLJ, and Hobby Search. All three of them are based in Japan so they get new releases relatively quickly, and they have reasonable international shipping costs. Some American-based stores include:  Big Bad Toy Store, Kid Nemo, Robert’s Anime Corner Store, and Toylet. For European-based stores, check out Nihonju and Archonia.

Preorder Your Figure

If there’s a figure that you really want, there’s probably a good chance that a lot of people really want it too. This is why, if the figure hasn’t been released, it’s a good idea to preorder it. Unlike toys, which are continually manufactured to meet demand, figures are released in limited quantities and when they sell out, you’re going to have a tough time getting your hands on one. Some stores also offer discounts for placing an order early.

Shop Around

Not all stores will sell the same figure for the same price, so it pays to take a look at some other stores before hitting that checkout button. Don’t forget to take the cost of shipping into account as well. Stores that aren’t based in Japan may have higher prices since they need to import the figures, but they may also save you a bit on shipping depending on where you live. The Japan-based stores also cater to Japanese customers so they’re more likely to be sold out of popular items.

Check The Bargain/Clearance Stock

If there is a figure that you want, but it doesn’t seem to be selling well (ie: it’s still in stock in every store several months after its release), then you might want to hold off buying and check the bargain/clearance stock to see if it ends up there. Be careful not to wait too long though, because the figure may just be selling slowly and end up out of stock before you know it.

Used Figures

Some people may not want to buy used figures, but sometimes it’s the only way to get a figure that has long been sold out. If you’re not sure where to look for used figures, I would recommend the sales section of myfigurecollection.net or the classifieds section of figure.fm. Both sites have communities of figure collectors so when they sell a figure, it’s not likely to be a bootleg. Once again, I would not recommend going to Ebay to buy figures unless the seller has actual photos of the figure and not just promo shots. If you have photos of the actual figure, it’s easier to tell if you’re getting a bootleg or not by comparing it to photos from figure blogs and myfigurecollection’s extensive gallery of bootleg figures.

This information should help anyone looking to buy their first anime figure online get started. If other collectors have more to add, feel free to leave a comment.

I realized that it’s the modern day syndrome, a lot of choice and a lot of different technology. Non-tech people will just buy the newest, the biggest or the smallest because they assume it’s the best. So I decided to share the steps I take when deciding which camera to buy.

Make a list for yourself of what you what in a camera, for example:

• small sized
• HD video capability
• a lot of zoom
• which brand

Start at dpreview and look for the latest cameras and their reviews, if you don’t want to spend too much money look at cameras that are already a minimal of six months on the market. Make a selection of 2 to 4 cameras that are to your liking.

Next go to Steve’s Digicams for an in depth review. I personally don’t read every word but I read the final conclusion, the pros and the cons. The sample photos are nicely done too compared to other review sites.

And then in my opinion the best site to decide on a camera, Flickr. You just search the model number and you’ll get hundreds of photos taken with that camera and groups/discussions dedicated to it. On Flickr there are all kind of users with photos taken in different situations such as nature, street or night. You can see their photos, what they can produce with said camera and read opinions. This way you can get more feel if someone knows what they are talking about, then some John Doe with no profile in a review forum.

As for myself I just spend two days reading up on compact digital cameras looking for ones that pack more power then regular point and shoots. And it’s like this with everything, even a simple external hard drive I won’t just go out and buy one on a hunch. While I will always stay price conscious I will read up on the products and the choices there are before I set foot in a store. Makes one miss the simpler days when there was only one iPod.

Many people dream of a romantic diner by candlelight and a bouquet of roses for Valentine’s Day. Your geek usually can be satisfied with much less: a pack of Mountain Dew cans, free pizza delivery and small gizmos. But what does your geek REALLY want?

Usually your geek also has some ‘out of the world’ wishes and by that I do not mean save the planet or discover the new Pi but gadgets with a rather large price tag. Examples of science, perfect in design, assembly and function. We have assembled the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift guide for geeks.

Optimus Maximus Keyboard

The Optimus Maximus is the ultimate keyboard for every geek. With customizable OLED keys and reprogrammable for most games and applications your geek tells you that this keyboard will optimize his efficiency, workflow. In reality this is one of those keyboards everyone wants, but just unaffordable at almost $1700.
Be warned that the drooling will only increase with every further released screenshot of the Optimus Tactus keyboard. Still just a concept, but with multitouch technology, even more OLED and without keys. Can things get any shinier?

Golden iPhone

UK Based Goldenstrike will goldplate almost anything, even tables, but their most popular articles are without doubt the gold plated iPhones and iPod Touch and this at reasonable prices even. With this decoration you are guaranteed to have your iPhone stolen within the shortest amount of time!

£599 for the iPhone, £499 for the iPod Touch 32GB and £449.95 for the iPod Nano 4G.

Swarowski USB flash drive

Most USB sticks look horrible and are way too large. She will be in heaven when she opens a gift box with one of these Swarowski USB Keys in. Philips and Swarowski have collaborated on a range of computer accessories and offer USB drives, headsets and keyboards. Lots of bling for your bang.

Alternatively you can always go to Crystal Icing where they will put Swarowski crystals on about everything you have or send them, as long as you pay enough. Almost any bling Star of Hollywood fame belongs to their customer base.

Golden USB Stick with Diamonds

He might want his USB drives a little more discrete and stylish and opt for the golden 16GB USB drive with encrusted diamonds at 5650EUR.

ModBook Pro

As long as the folks at Infinite Loop 1 continue to be stubborn, only the ModBook from Axiotrom can realize the dream of the Apple Tablet. On the base of a new unibody MacBook Pro, with both pen and touch options, the Modbook Pro starts at $4998 and will make your geek extremely happy. Control the drool level!

Hasselblad H3DII-50

Every year again when one of the usual suspects, Canon and Nikon, release and upgrade their high-end DSLR camera models, geeks worldwide start drooling, but if they would be really honest and price were no restriction, there’s only one camera they want and that’s this one. The Hasselblad H3DII-50.
The 50MP 36x48mm sensor generates 300MB files at 1FPS and can be found from $27.995.

If price is an objection you can always settle for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II or the Nikon D3X, both available for less than $5000.

Pioneer SC-09TX (UK: SC-LX90) Multichannel Amplifier

After many hours of hard work (to pay all these gadgets obviously!) your geek of course wants to chill and sip a good drink, while listening to some audio or watch a movie. Because your geek always wants the best, preferably even technology which isn’t applied yet he dreams of this Pioneer SC-09TX cinema amplifier with 10x140Watt, delivered by a ‘pre’- and ‘power’ unit, all in a very sleek design. This amplifier has everything needed, is fully network capable and can upscale almost any imaginable videoformat. All for a meager $7000.

Bower & Wilkins 800-series Speakers Package

Now your geek can kick back with a powerful, deliciously sounding amplifier you obviously also need an appropriate set of speakers and these B7W 800 series speakers will blow you, and the neighbors, away.
When selecting a standard 7.2 speaker package consisting of 803D front speakers, ASW825 subwoofers, HTM2D center speaker and DS8S surround speakers, this will cost you easily another $30.000, but I promise you that you will enjoy listening to Apocalypto, one of the only Blu-ray releases with *7.1* soundtrack so far.

Marantz VP-11S1 1080p Projector

When being honest every geek will admit that HDTVs no part of their dreams are, but hopefully a soon to be realized perspective if they haven’t gotten one yet.
Instead they dream of FullHD quality projected on the wall, preferably from this Marantz VP-11S1 1080p DLP projector with 6500:1 contrast ratio. The image of this projector is amazing and the black in The Dark Knight are deep and one can even distinct different shades of grey from black.

Just admit it yourself, what is better than playing GTAIV on this setup? Oh, the projector costs $19.995.

Koenigsegg CCX

Last but not least your geek needs a car. A fast one. And that is the Koenigsegg CCX is a masterpiece of perfection and carbon fibre. 806BHP, 0-62 in 3.2 seconds and look at those doors! At top speed 245+ mph this gift will set you back around 540.000EUR.
The reason for the Koenigsegg is simple: every other nerd already has an Ascari or a Zonda!

Let’s say you came late in the game. Perhaps it’s only now that you’ve purchased your own portable music player, got a broadband connection, or simply got wind of this wonderful new medium that lets you listen to just about anything under the sun, and even create your own audio programmes about anything under the sun, beyond the sun, and even the sun itself!

Let’s revisit some basic concepts on podcasts and podcasting. Let’s also have a brief rundown of how to produce your own podcast.

What is a podcast? And what is podcasting?

A podcast is an audio programme distributed via the Internet. It is very much like a broadcast on AM radio, with much commentary or discussion involved. Or, it can be like FM radio, with artists regularly releasing original music tracks on a regular basis.

A podcast is different from a regular downloaded audio recording or streaming audio, however, in that the content-distribution is automatically done through RSS (really simple syndication / rich site summary). For instance, a regular podcast subscriber would expect the audio recording to be automatically transferred to his computer (and portable media player, if available) once there is a new edition or episode of his subscribed programmes available.

What can podcasts contain and discuss?

Very much like blogs, podcasts tend to have niche audiences, with material specifically aimed at a target audience. And there are podcasts on just about any topic, from technology, to business, to politics, to fashion, to entertainment, and even very obscure and specific topics like, say, hairdressing, and your extensive Teletubby doll collection.

Podcasts can consist of short, ten-minute commentaries, but can also span to hour-long round-table discussions. Podcasters are not limited by airtime constraints, like in broadcast media; but one should be mindful of the boredom thresholds of listeners!

How are podcasts created?

Podcasting essentially consists of four steps:

1. Content preparation
2. Recording and post-processing
3. Publication (and syndication)
4. Marketing

How are podcasts delivered to the intended audience?

• Some listeners prefer to download podcasts as individual audio files over a web browser or sometimes even peer-to-peer file transfer software.
• Some would search submissions and entries in podcast directories, and download files individually.
• Others would play audio directly on a web browser as an embedded, streaming media.
• However, the standard way of receiving podcasts is by subscribing using a pod-catcher or a podcast-client like iTunes or iPodder. Subscription may be through podcast directories or by manually entering a podcast’s RSS feed URL onto the client.
• Podcasts may be listened to on a computer or on a portable media device (not necessarily an iPod).

What do I need to create a basic podcast?

Let’s start out with a simple setup—we begin with the most essential parts of podcast creation, as these would still be very much the same steps to take when you graduate into more technically-sophisticated setups.

Hardware requirements

• Computer – laptop or desktop running on a fairly recent processor (i.e. Pentium IV, Pentium M, or latter Celerons), and with a sound card
• Microphone – either analog or USB (but USB mics may be problematic with some setups
• Speaker or Ear/headphones

Software requirements. The following should be installed on your system:

• The base operating system – may be Windows, Linux or Macintosh, but for simplicity’s sake, let’s assume Windows XP
• For recording and mixing – Audacity
• For encoding – LAME MP3 Encoder
• Web browser – any modern web browser, such as Mozilla Firefox 1.xx or Internet Explorer 6.xx, will do
• A podcatcher or podcast client – iTunes or iPodder (now called Juice)

Other things you’ll need

• Music tracks (if so desired) – podcast-safe music can be downloaded from http://podsafeaudio.com and other similar sites.
• A web host, or a blog, or an account with a blogging provider
• An account with FeedBurner (to help standardize your RSS feed) – optional
• An account with any of the following (or any other) services that can host media, particularly audiofiles: Gcast, Odeo, OurMedia

Creating your simple podcast, step-by-step

Part 1: Preparing the content

Create a script. Unless you’re an experienced talk show host, then you’d need a script or at least an outline to guide your show. Otherwise, you’d have ten minutes of umms, ahhs, and errs which will surely annoy your audience. Some prefer podcasts that are spontaneous, while others prefer clear-cut ‘casts with a definite message. But I think it’s best if you have at least an outline or a summary of the flow of what you would be discussing.

Here’s a rule of thumb you can follow in creating a ten-minute podcast:

• 10 seconds: Intro music or audio
• 20 seconds: Introduce the podcast. State the title, your name(s), and the purpose of the podcast. Also state the URL where your podcast and the show notes can be found. Introduce your guests, if any.
• 10 seconds: If you have any sponsors, mention them now!
• 20 seconds: Provide a brief outline of your show, if you have a script; if not, state here what you plan to talk about.
• 9 minutes: The main body or discussion
• 20 seconds: Wrap up the discussion, outlining your main points. If you have guests, take this time to thank and acknowledge them.
• 10 seconds: If you have sponsors you’d like to mention again, now’s the time!
• 20 seconds: Introduce the podcast once more. State the title, your name, and the URL of the podcast and show notes.
• 10 seconds: outro music.
• Optional: 3 to 5 minutes: Podcast-safe song or piece from an independent band or artist at the end of your show

Of course, these are just suggested guidelines, but for a beginning podcaster, hopefully useful enough. You are free to do variations, as necessary. For instance, some podcasters place ads right before the intro music.

Part 2: Recording and post-processing

Record the audio. This is the most fun part of podcasting. Now you can fulfill your dreams of becoming like your radio idol Howard Stern, ranting and raving about anything under the sun! Here’s what to do:

• Open your preferred audio recording software, in our case, Audacity.
• Check if your microphone works, and if the recording level is acceptable. Press the round, red record button and speak a few test lines into the mic. Then end the recording and then play back your test message. If you don’t hear what you just recorded, then adjust the mic and volume controls accordingly.
  If the recording level is acceptable, then create a new, clean recording by pressing File-New. You may now start recording your programme.
• If you press the stop button and then record again, this will record the new audio on a new audio track (use the pause button instead, if you simply want to pause for a while).
• Make sure you save the Audacity project after recording.

Alternative means of recording include importing an existing voice recording (say, from a portable media player with recording features, or from CD), and recording a VoIP conversation/interview (i.e. roundtable discussions).

Edit the audio recording. Once you’ve recorded the audio, you may want to take out a few blank spaces (i.e. silent pauses) or unwanted portions, or bleep out inappropriate words. You may also want to vary the audio levels on some portions of the recording, or remove noise. You can use Audacity to:

• Delete any portion of the recordings.
• Bleep out portions.
• Change and vary the amplitude of the recording or any other track.
• Change the positioning of each track with the time shifting tool.
• Insert or move around portions of tracks by using copy/cut-and-paste.
• Merge your voice recording into only one track, for easier editing later on.

You can now mix the audio recording with the other tracks. Once the voice track has been cleaned and merged into only one track, it is now time to mix other audio and music tracks.

• You can import MP3 music into Audacity. You can then select and copy a few seconds, for instance, of the music intro, into the beginning portion of the recording. You can adjust the position of the voice recording using the time shifting tool.
• Try to use podcast-safe music as much as possible. We wouldn’t want the RIAA running after us for copyright infringement, would we?

Save the podcast. Once you’ve deleted the unnecessary tracks, save the audacity project (with the music and voice tracks separate). Then export the file into MP3 format with the “export as MP3” function. You are asked to type in the ID tags (title, artist, genre, etc.) for the MP3 file. This will be used by MP3 media players to identify the media while playing.

Part 3: Publication

Upload the media. Once the file export is through, you may wish to listen to the finished product first. If you are satisfied, then it is time to upload.

• You may upload the MP3 onto a podcast-hosting service such as Gcast, or Ourmedia. These have various features like automatic-XML/RSS generation and playing through an embedded player.
• You can also upload onto your own host (or a free host) and then link the media to your blog or website. We shall then use FeedBurner to convert our blog RSS or Atom feed into a podcast-compatible format.

Prepare your podcast’s RSS feed. RSS is probably 50% of what makes up your podcast, because this is the technology that lets people pull the content from your server automatically as soon as you have uploaded a new episode.

• You can hand-code your RSS feed, but this can be difficult and not recommended. Besides, blogging software and podcast hosting services usually already generate their own RSS feeds.
• If you use a podcast hosting service, do retrieve the automatically-generated URL of the podcast RSS.
• If you have uploaded your MP3 file onto your own paid or free host, you may use FeedBurner to automatically convert your blog’s feed into podcast-friendly format. Just make sure you use the <a rel=”enclosure”> tag when linking to the MP3 file.

Try it out yourself. Subscribe to your podcast’s RSS feed through your podcatcher, and see if it can automatically download the episode for you. If you’re using an embedded player, try to play a streaming version of your podcast on your computer.

Part 4: Marketing

Publicize your Podcast. What’s a show without an audience? If you have a fresh, new podcast, it pays to do some PR to get people listening in on your programme. Much like with blogs, the best way to market your podcast is word of mouth:

• Blog about it. The blog, the podcast’s close cousin is the first place to promote a podcast. If you’re using a podcast hosting service, then you can usually embed streaming versions of your podcast.
• Comment on other people’s blogs/sites. Link back, of course, but be sure you’re commenting on relevant blogs. Otherwise, your presence may be considered spam!
• Submit your podcast to directory services, such as www.podcast.net, www.podcastalley.com, www.ipodder.org, and www.podcastdirectory.com (Yahoo! has a great list of podcast directories)

The last step would probably be to start anew! Once you’ve published one episode of your podcast, it’s time to sit back awhile for a well-deserved rest, and to think up topics to discuss on your next episode.

Update: You can check out a follow-up post here – Successful Podcasting.

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