Bargain Gaming #1: Discount Shops for Merchandise!

We all like to save money. If we can buy things for cheaper, that ultimatley means we can buy MORE things. :)

That's why I've started this new blog feature - BARGAIN GAMING, or Gaming on a Budget. I'm going to trawl discount shops, car boot sales, charity shops, online sites and anywhere else I can snap up a gaming bargain. Whether it's for consoles, games, peripherals, clothing or merchandise - I like to save money too, and I'm going to show you how. 

So, I had some cash in my purse while I was in town and decided to look around some of the UK's leading DISCOUNT SHOPS. Discount shops meaning, anywhere that sells things in bulk, or food products that are soon to expire, or packaging written in another language - or whatever they managed to buy for cheap from a warehouse.

The shops at my disposal were:
- Poundland
- Poundworld
- Bargain Buys
- 99p Stores
- Home Bargains
- B&M

(And just a side-note - B&M stands for "BARGAINS & MORE", not Bargain MADNESS. "Bargains AND Madness" makes no damn sense! Educate yourselves!)

My purchases ended up coming from Poundworld and Bargain Buys - but I'm not writing the other shops off yet - sometimes they have random one-off things in - it's all about patience.

So, how much did ALL OF THIS cost me?

As you can see, we have got:

- a Super Mario Yoshi figurine

- a Pac-Man & the Ghostly Adventures figurine

- a big Om Nom from Cut the Rope plush

- a pack of Cut the Rope Nommies

- a Skylanders wash mitt

- a Minecraft "Secrets & Cheats" guide book

- and a Princess Peach K'Nex Mario Kart 7 set

Prices I found online for these things were:

- £3-£6 for the Yoshi figurine; I have also seen them in game shops for around £3.50

- £2.50-£7 for the Pac-Man figurine

- £6-£8 for the Om Nom plush

- £3-£6 for a pack of Cut the Rope Nommies

- £2 for the Skylanders wash mitt, which also seemed to be available in a £7 gift set with some shower gel

- £5 for the unofficial Minecraft book, bear in mind, it's unofficial

- £12-£16 for the Princess Peach K'Nex set

But how much did I pay?

£10. TEN POUNDS. For ALL OF IT.

The Princess Peach set was £5, everything else was £1 each.

Want to see me show it all off and waffle on about stuff? Here's a video:

Opening a Super Mario Lucky Bag!

While mooching for Christmas presents in the clothing chain store known as Primark - I spotted something by the tills. These little shelves are usually full of lip balms, socks, sweets and other crap - but this time I found THIS:

A Super Mario Bros. LUCKY BAG!

Lucky bags, if you were not aware are a childhood staple, a plastic bag filled with sweets, cheap toys, pencils/crayons, colouring/puzzle books and other miscellaneous crap - usually costing around £1 or £2. This one, being an officially liscened Nintendo product was £2.50 - probably a tad too expensive for what it actually is.

Inside I found:
- a colouring/puzzle book (stay tuned for more on that)
- sweets, in the form of a pink lollipop and three packs of powdery fizzy things
- foamy papercraft stand-ups of Mario, Luigi and Yoshi
- what I presume is a tile-matching game
- potentially a game of Mario-themed snap
- a little pencil
- and a sticker sheet

Here's a video unboxing, or un-bagging of this bizarre little collection of items:

Unboxing: Arcade Block December 2015

Time for my second monthly Arcade Block!

As I've previously explained; for a fee of $20 CANADIAN per month, Arcade Block will send you a lovely box of gaming merchandise, including a T-shirt. Shipping costs vary, depending on where you live, and larger T-shirt sizes cost a few $ extra - overall, my boxes including shipping, work out at about £24.

Here's a lovely video, I've learned from my previous mistakes of dark as fuck videos and massively increased the light level and sorted out white balance:



And here's a closer look at some of the contents:

Space Invaders money tin

Arcade Block playing cards

The Last of Us Titans figurine pack

$3 G2A credit

Street Fighter V patch

Pirate Cats From Outer Space notebook

Just Cause 3 T-shirt

Stay tuned for more unboxings!

Custom Sims: Aeris (Aerith) Gainsborough, Final Fantasy VII

I like to make custom Sims. I like my neighbourhood to have a handful of Sims I've made mooching around - so they're fun to look out for and see what they get up to.

Obviously, I like to make games characters - so I tried to make a few from my favourite game, Final Fantasy VII.

Bear in mind, I use no custom content or mods - only the items that come included with the expansion packs, stuff packs and store content - it makes it more of a challenge.

So, I present to you, Aeris/Aerith Gainsborough, from Final Fantasy VII.

So, we've got flowers in her hair, the red jacket - longer than the one she wears, mind, pink dress and the massive hiking boots. Good, yes? :P

Can you make a better one? Post it on Twitter and @MogAnarchy :D