My 12 Gifts of Christmas - 2022

My twelve gifts of Christmas,

Received year 2022:

A model Minecraft piggy

Sonic the Hedgehog PJs

10 pack of Nano Bytes

Shitloads of Little Britain

Keyboard and a mouse set

Rolos and satsumas

Mario & Rabbids

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee

Sonic Frontiers 

Scarlet & Violet

Amazon gift vouchers

And tested positive for Covid 19!

Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards - Ridiculously Expensive... Especially In Europe!

Did you know that both Animal Crossing Amiibo and Animal Crossing Amiibo cards are region-free? Well of course; they're simple add-on content for games, why wouldn't they be? And as an added bonus - we can bag a deal online from eBay sellers who might not be from the same country we are - or we can play with exclusive cards or Amiibo that weren't released over here.

So while trawling eBay for deals on the RIDICULOUSLY overpriced Animal Crossing Amiibo cards - I've discovered something.

EUROPEANS ARE GETTING SHAFTED. 

Did you know... every pack of Animal Crossing Amiibo cards is guaranteed to contain a special character? One of the holographic cards of a special NPC - basically - Isabelle, Resetti, Tom Nook etc. 

Take series 1 for example - there are SEVENTEEN special cards and EIGHTY-THREE normal cards. The likelihood of completing your collection of special cards is incredibly high - whilst encountering a regular villager card - or at least a specific one is rather low.

OK, so how does that mean Europeans are getting shafted? Japanese and US players are getting shafted too?

NOPE.

The packs that are for sale in the UK and Europe cost around £3.20-£3.99 per pack - and our packs contain THREE cards. That's more than £1 PER CARD. I managed to find a seller on eBay selling packs of the US versions of the cards for £6... and their packs contain SIX CARDS. The cards themselves cost around the same - BUT...

They too only contain ONE special card! Where we get TWO normal cards, they get FIVE! The sheer prices people are hoping to get for individual cards - particularly popular characters like Punchy, Bob and Kabuki - absolute insanity. Shelly and I both would like a town full of CATS - 10 cat villagers - and thanks to Amiibo cards, this is now possible... if people weren't charging prices like THIS:

And if we were to buy the blind packages of cards - we'd soon be getting doubles, especially of the "special" characters - we could sell those on eBay - except NOBODY IS BUYING THEM. Nobody is buying them because the name "special" character is a misnomer - they're less rare than the regular cards!

If we were to buy the blind packages to complete the album (the album incidentally is very cheap - £7 and it comes with a pack of cards that normally cost £3.99 - the album is like £2!) we would theoretically end up spending double what a non-European player would in order to complete their collection!

And the problem is; this isn't going to change. In fact, it's going to get worse. I've been watching the prices slowly climbing since last October. We've really chosen a bad time to get into these poxy cards. They sell the albums and games dirt cheap, and gouge us up the arse (especially if you live in Europe) for the damn cards. 

Amusingly, the Amiibo themselves are decreasing in price, I recently nabbed Resetti for £5.20 and Rover for £5.40 - and you can display those on a shelf!

Resident Evil SCENTED CANDLE?!

So, Resident Evil 7 is coming out. And I actually like the look of this one - they're finally bringing back the claustrophobic old mansion setting of the original games rather than wide open peasant villages and boring cruise liners. The special edition goodies also look pretty nice - though notice how the European “finger” USB actually looks like a finger rather than a piece of charred male genitalia.

Anyway, while mooching around Amazon the other day, I came across this

Yes; a Resident Evil 4D SCENTED CANDLE.

Firstly, “4D” is a misnomer, as the fourth dimension deals with time - if anything it's a 3D candle - but I'd have just called it an immersive candle or a VR candle - because what this candle is designed to do is enhance the experience of playing Resident Evil 4 using a VR headset by making your room smell like the mansion.

...A scented candle that smells like a survival horror game. Right.

When I first read that, several ideas came to mind about what Resident Evil could possibly smell like. Dust? Mildew? Rotting flesh?

Apparently it smells like blood and timber. Lovely, just what everyone wants their living room to smell like - an accident at an abandoned logging mill.

And I'm sure our girlfriends/fiancees/wives won't be too pleased about it - I know mine isn't! I wanted to pre-order one to review and Shelly won't let me. Amusing really, since all she does is fill our house with incense and scented candles herself, but I digress.

I agree it would probably make the game more immersive whilst playing with a VR headset, but in theory, so would covering yourself in Brussels Pate and allowing several rabid dogs to bite your testicles.

But it got me thinking about something else; what other games could employ this scented candle idea? What other games would actually smell pretty damn good if condensed down into candle form?

Mmmm, hot elixir soup!

Awesome, greasy burgers!

Lush lawns, flowers and various animal dung.

Ground meat and freshly waxed floors.

200 year old freeze dried macaroni cheese and scorched wasteland?

Hmmm, blood and timber… hang on.

How about you? Got any ideas for other games that could smell good in candle form? How about other horror/gore games that could also work with the blood and timber Resident Evil candle?

"Prickly Animal" Fingerless Gloves?

I love knock-off products - simply because some of them are just so badly done, they're hilarious.

I was mooching around Amazon a while ago, looking for a birthday present for Shelly. I was looking for Sonic The Hedgehog T-Shirts - so I searched for "Sonic The Hedgehog" in the clothing department. Amongst the endless boys' pyjamas, shirts and socks - I found this gem:

"Prickly Animal" fingerless gloves? LMAO! 

No wonder they're currently unavailable, they must've sold out in fucking droves!

How To Make An Awesome Sweet Hamper

For my fianceé Shelly's 26th birthday this year, I decided to do something I've always wanted to do, ever since I heard of their existence. Yes, I made my own SWEET HAMPER - and believe me when I say this; my new mission in life is to encourage EVERYONE to make their own and drive the greedy Amazon sellers out of business. 

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Allow me to present my 10 reasons as to why you should take the effort to make your own sweet hampers, rather than buying them from online sellers:

1. You are making an effort to make something personal for somebody, homemade gifts are the best kind.

2. You'll save a SHITLOAD of money - I shall elaborate on this point later...

3. You can make sure that your sweet hamper will contain only things that the person likes - you never know what will come from online sellers.

4. You can build your hamper around a specific theme, again making the gift more personal (i.e. a liquorice hamper, a Haribo hamper, an American candy hamper etc.)

5. You can tailor your hamper to a person's specific dietary requirements (i.e. vegetarian, vegan, Halal, Kosher, gluten intolerant, nut allergy etc.)

6. As you are making it yourself, your creativity is unlimited; you can decorate the presentation box to your heart's content, you can use photographs or drawings and make the gift even more personal.

7. You can decide yourself on your own budget, the size of the box, the variety of sweets - the sky's the limit to all of the variables YOU personally control.

8. If you plan to make a hamper in advance, you can ensure all of the contents have good sell-by dates and are in good condition (i.e. packaging is not damaged by the postage process)

9. Speaking of the postage process - there ISN'T one; you have as long as you want to make your hamper, and there's no obnoxious waiting in for the postman.

10. And finally: it's SO FUCKING FUN. I personally haven't had this much fun making a present for someone in a very long time. Because it's so fun, you could adapt the idea of a sweet hamper into something you can work on with your children or co-workers or whoever you like - just make sure they can keep a secret!

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When making a sweet hamper, there are numerous things you need to take into consideration:

- Their tastes: do they like aniseed, mint, strawberry, raisins, marshmallows, bubblegum? You ideally want to fill your hamper with as many things as possible that the person will like.

- Their age: think about it, a sweet hamper for your young child is going to be very different to one you make for your nana. For example, your nana might enjoy old sweet shop classics like BonBons and Licorice Allsorts, whereas your child may prefer smaller, sweeter things like Milkybars and Jelly Babies.

- Their dietary requirements: as I mentioned earlier, if you want to buy a sweet hamper for a person with a specific dietary need, you may be out of luck - you physically cannot read the ingredients of the contents and have no way of ensuring that they haven't come into contact with other contents that may contain something the person cannot eat. Be very wary of these things - especially for people who are vegetarian/vegan/Halal etc. - SO MANY sweets contain pork gelatine.

- Their personality: Are they a person who would love to gorge on sweets until they're sick or just keep a jar nearby to offer round to guests? Of course, you wouldn't make a sweet hamper for someone who didn't like sweets... Make your you tailor their hamper to THEM.

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Okay, onto the hamper I made for Shelly:

Firstly, Shelly has recently had an operation, and has been told that she cannot eat nuts. This obviously isn't as rigid as someone having a nut allergy - I just had to make sure I didn't buy sweets like Snickers bars, sugared almonds or chocolate-covered peanuts.

Secondly, Shelly is a self-proclaimed chocoholic - so I knew that I had to include lots of different types of chocolate. But at the same time, Shelly also really likes gummies and chewy sweets and isn't a huge fan of bubblegum.

I opted to make a sweet hamper that provided as many different things as possible - ideally providing at least 2 of each thing. I didn't really have a theme, per se, I wanted her to have NO IDEA what was going to be in this box. The solution? As much variety as possible!

So, what does Shelly like and what does Shelly not like?

Likes: 

Strawberry, Cherry, Chocolate, Marshmallows, Mint, Sherbet, Popping Candy, Haribos, Gummies/Jellies

Dislikes: 

Bubblegum, Liquorice, Wafers, Nougat, Banana, Coconut

Let's begin with the box. This is the box I used:

Shelly likes dogs, so a box pattered with dogs will go down well. Also a good thing to bear in mind is once the box is empty, will they want to keep the box to use for storage? In my case, I don't see why not. This box is lovely. :)

Anyway, it's about 6 inches deep and 18 inches wide. It's a fairly large box, ideally for a large amount of sweets to fill it with. 

My dad bought me this box from the homeware store Chiltern Mills for £5.99. So I technically didn't buy the box - but that is your first thing your budget should take into account. Before you go out buying boxes however, check your cupboards - any old box will do - remember, you can jazz it up, cover it with wrapping paper, for example. And if you don't have a box, I can guarantee your nana or your aunt who hoards boxes and gift bags will have one. :)

Push comes to shove, use a shoebox or a hatbox. :)

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The best places to look for sweets I found were:

- The pocket-money section of major supermarkets (i.e. ASDA and Tesco); they sell things like giant Drumstick lollipops, bubblegum, chocolate bars, large chew bars etc, usually at around 10p-30p.

- ASDA sell bags of sweet-shop classics (i.e. Dolly Mixtures, chocolate buttons, jelly beans etc.), 3 bags for £1 - awesome deal.

- Poundland and Poundworld are GODSENDS of discount shops. They tend to sell large multipacks of sweets, especially those made by Swizzels Matlow. They also occasionally sell imported candy from the USA like Wonka Gobstoppers.

- Home Bargains, B&M, The 99p Store and Discount UK are also very good choices. I bought half a shopping basket's worth of sweets from Home Bargains and spent under £8. They tend to sell small packs of sweets and chocolate bars for under 25p. 

- Iceland: in Iceland, I found this gem. This is a pack of Nestlé chocolate bars - 6 different bars for only £2. These bars can retail individually for 60p!

- Lidl and Aldi: as most of their stock is imported from Europe (mainly Germany), the packaging tends to be in multiple languages, but the quality is pretty good and they're hella cheap. Shelly and I are big fans. :)

- Local corner shops and newsagents: many of these places tend to sell the classic 10p and 20p mix-ups, but they also sell pocket-money sweets, mostly under 30p.

Another thing to take into consideration: Shelly's birthday is October 25th - smack bang in the middle of the pre-Halloween sales window - where every shop on the high street is overflowing with sweets and candies. Some shops were even selling Christmas stuff! (Poundland in our town were selling chocolate Father Christmases on the 1st of SEPTEMBER)

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Once it was filled to the brim, I weighed my box. It was too big and too heavy for the kitchen scales, so I had to weigh myself, then weigh myself holding the box. The box weighs in at a whopping SEVEN AND A HALF KILOGRAMS. 

Let's put that into perspective; I spent around £30 on this sweet hamper (minus the box itself), and it weighs seven kilograms. That's around £4.20 per kilo. 

This sweet hamper weighs 1.1kg and costs £12.99 - more or less £12 per kilo there.

This one weighs 2.5kg and costs £35 - more than what I paid for mine, and less than half of what mine weighs!

And finally, out of interest, I searched for the most expensive sweets hamper I could find on Amazon; I found THIS. £425 and says that it weighs "over 25 kilos". £17 per kilo. Yeah, I'm so glad I decided to make my own. :)

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This is a photograph of the finished box I made:

For those who are interested, here is a complete list of everything that was inside my box. Bear in mind, all of these Amazon sellers boast "over 25 kinds of sweets", my box contains over 100!

And finally, because I'm such a huge NERD; I made some lovely pie charts. :D

INCLUDED FLAVOURS

TYPES OF SWEETS

Questions? Comments? 

Leave me a message below; you don't even need a Blogger account!

Car Boot Sale Treasure Hunting

The Sunday before last I went to Redcar boot sale with my fiancée, my dad and my gaming nana who plays Bejeweled. I've recently been getting back into some really retro games from the 80s and early 90s to distract myself from the horror that is the Xbox One. Seriously, try it - if you ever start feeling sad or disappointed about the Xbox One, break out your old SNES or original Game Boy and play some awesome retro stuff - all your troubles melt away. :D

Anyway, in addition to mooching online I thought it would be a good idea to have a trawl around the local car boot sales - for some reason there's like 10 different ones held every Sunday around the area where I live, so after casually mentioning it to my dad - he jumped to it. :D

Most of the stalls were just crap, old kids toys and baby clothes - but there were a handful of stands dedicated purely to video games and the odd table that had a small pile of games hidden amongst the old tat - so Shelly and I were competing to see who could spot the games on the stalls first. There was one dude who actually had a SNES for sale and a stack of cartridges of all kinds and we had a long discussion about my new NES. He said he buys wholesale lots on eBay for cheap then sells the stuff for a profit at the boot sales.

At first I didn't think I was going to come out with anything at all - but on the contrary. This is my haul for the day:

 

After I got home, Shelly and I decided to see if I got some good deals - so we searched eBay and Amazon, finding items in identical condition (i.e., boxed, cart only) - and this is what we found:

 

God Of War (PS2):

I paid £1. It's sold online for £5.

 

South Park: Chef's Luv Shack (N64):

I paid £4. It's sold online for £5.

 

Toki: Going Ape Spit (Mega Drive):

I paid £2. It's sold online for £7.

 

Kirby's Pinball Land (Game Boy):

I paid £3. It's sold online for £12.

 

Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant (Xbox 360):

I paid £3. It's sold online for £18.

 

Mario & Yoshi (Game Boy):

I paid £3. It's sold online for £3.

 

Mega Games 3 (Mega Drive):

I paid £3. It's sold online for £3.50.

 

With every game, I either paid the same or better. :D

Also, I plan to finish Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant, get the 1000G and then sell it onto CeX for £22 exchange value. PROFIT!

Super Mario Bros. Amazon.co.uk FAIL

Everyone knows I like Amazon.co.uk. I used to buy all of my games from Play.com before they decided they didn't want to accept my bank card anymore, so I migrated to Amazon. I'm a bit iffy on eBay, mainly due to the bidding wars and whatnot. But anyway.

I recently bought a NES from eBay, so I was mooching for some more games. It came with the original Super Mario Bros. so I searched for the "sequel" Super Mario Bros. 2 (even though we all know it's not a REAL Mario game, it's still worth playing!) and was quite surprised to find it half a million miles down on the page of results.

So out of curiosity, I searched for "Super Mario Bros."
I didn't expect the NES original to be the #1 search of course; as I expected that went to the "New" naff Super Mario Bros. on the DS. (I'm just not a big fan of it, OK?). But where the NES original was, was ridiculous.

16th on the list - below some shitty little PVC figurines which don't even look like the official ones that came packaged in the red cardboard packs.

What was even more insulting to the awesome NES original however, was THIS:

It ranks lower than the ridiculous live-action Super Mario Bros. movie.
Amazon, what the actual fuck. Get your shit together seriously.

Gamer's Wardrobe: "Make It Rain" LoZ:OoT T-Shirt

The second instalment of my Gamer's Wardrobe blog feature, today I present:

 

[Amazon.co.uk link]

[£9.50 from Print Wear Clothing, sizes S-2XL]

[Available in: white, green, black, grey, light blue & royal blue]

 

 

For Hyrule residents advertising their love for a) The Song of Storms and b) water for their grass that Link insists on chopping down every time it grows back. :)

As you can see, I chose the black version to fit in with my vast array of heavy metal attire I own (owning practically only black shirts makes washing day so much less hassle!), on the photograph, the transfer looks quite dark and illegible, but as you can see it's printed in a lighter font than on the image. :D


As it's a budget T-shirt, one can't expect the highest quality of printing, and it sort of resembles a basic iron-on transfer rather than a machine-printed one - but I've washed it several times now and it's still holding up nicely. :D

Gamer's Wardrobe: Vault 101 T-Shirt

Another frequent feature to my blog is my new "Gamer's Wardrobe" collection of posts - where I shall model my top gaming swag, T-shirts, hats, wristbands; whatever I happen to own or have purchased recently.

Today I present to you: The Vault 101 T-Shirt

[Amazon.co.uk link]

[£.9.98 from Zerg Tees, sizes S-2XL]

For the Vault Dweller who needs a bit more mobility, something less restricting than their bulky Vault Jumpsuit. :D

The T-shirt itself fits comfortably, is printed well (not the usual 'shiny' cheap-looking T-shirt print, it's suitably worn-looking, just like a real Fallout piece of clothing) and is nice and cheap for gamers on a budget.

Product Review: Bob-Omb Candy

In response to my last post, I DIDN'T get a Pot Noodle in the post (thankfully, coz I don't like the Bombay Bad Boy ones, I like Chicken and Mushroom), I DID get my little Mario Bob-Omb along with a bottle of Bawls Guarana - and because American Soda are awesome, I got a free box of Wonka Everlasting Gobstoppers too (which my fiancée and I are prone to buying from import shops because they're awesome.)

Anyway, the Bob-Omb itself, while being reasonable in terms of candy, is a pretty sweet toy. The wick is moveable, as is the wind-up key on its back and  it stands at around 2" tall - so even after eating the candy stick and sherbet inside, it's a cool collectible or a toy for a kid.

Bob-Omb Flavoured Pot Noodle?

OK Amazon, what the actual fuck?

I've recently ordered a handful of cool video game candy and products because I want to write some product reviews on my blog - so when I saw these little plastic Bob-Ombs from Mario that are filled with candy, I thought they were pretty cool:

 

[Amazon.co.uk link]

 

 

Well, for some reason when I checked my e-mails for the dispatch information, I saw THIS:

 



 

What the hell, I did NOT order a Bombay Bad Boy flavour Pot Noodle. I ordered a Mario Bob-Omb. (The same picture also shows up in my order history...)

If I end up getting a Pot Noodle in the post, I shall not be pleased.