Lego Star Wars Book

Lego Star Wars: Vader's Secret Missions /Darth Vaderin Salaisuus

Originally published in 2015, but this Finnish edition is from 2016. Written by Ace Landers /Finnish translation by Antti Hulkkonen.
The book features a short history and other info about the Sith and Darth Vader himself, few quizzes and three short stories named: "The Emperor's New Clones /Keisarin uudet kloonit", "Every Darth Has His Day /Darthilla on huono päivä", and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Sith? /Kuka pelkää isoa pahaa Sithiä?". The book is 64 pages long. Source.

Bought this book from a bargain bin for the price of 7,90€, I don't remember the original price. I only bought it because I really liked the illustrations. Star Wars characters as Lego minifigures are just too cute. Also, I have no shame in liking some simple reading now and then. It didn't take long to find out why it was in the bargain bin in the first place. Sure, the book is already four years old, but I think the fact that this book has its illustrations mixed up might also be a likely reason for why it's on sale.

The stories "Every Darth Has His Day" and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Sith?" are the two who have their illustrations wrongly placed. One story takes place in a forest on the planet Kashyyyk and the other story's setting is the ice planet Hoth. So while I'm reading what happened on Kashyyyk the illustrations show what's happening on Hoth. And vice versa. Sort of frustrating to be honest. I was starting to doubt that maybe the text itself was wrongly placed and not the illustrations. So confusing! The names for the two short stories are very generic themselves and don't help much to identify which story is which.

I'm assuming that at least the index page should be correct because the page numbering is right on throughout the book. That would mean that the Kashyyyk story is named "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Sith?" and the Hoth one is "Every Darth Has His Day". Bah, I guess it doesn't really matter. I don't really have anything to say about the stories themselves. It was what I expected, just some silly kids stuff. Mostly harmless. ;D

I'm used to consuming almost all of my Star Wars in English, so reading it in Finnish feels a bit awkward. Some of the language here doesn't really roll off the tongue easily.  What really irks me is the Finnish title of the book which translates back to English as Darth Vader's Secret. Secret? What Secret? The fact that he is Anakin Skywalker? Ooops, spoilers!

I don't know, maybe Darth Vaderin Salaisuus just sounds better than Vaderin Salaiset Tehtävät. Who cares, it's for kids. It doesn't have to make sense.

...my faves! <3

Bonus:

While I was buying the book, I also happened to find these SW stickers. I like that they are illustrated and not just minimized photos. The minimal use of color is also nice. Based on the Rebels Stormtrooper banner on top, these have to be somewhat old too. I think this Stormtrooper helmet was the "logo" they used on their merchandise before the Force Awakens came out in 2015, and they switched to using Kylo Ren's helmet. So that makes these stickers probably 5+ years old. Not that it matters, I just love finding old merch.

DBZ Loot

It's about time I got around to make a post about the greatest love of my life, Dragonball! Which has, to my shame, been greatly unrepresented in this blog, but if I have to find something to pin the blame on, I'd blame the poor availability of the franchise in Finland. It is surprisingly difficult to find any DBZ merchandise (except the video games and the manga) without having to resort to buying them from abroad. It seems every time I order something from abroad, there will guaranteed be a problem I've to deal with to the point that I'm sick of it! ...... Well, anyway, I was super happy to find the following items in  my homeland, without having to deal with any post shipping mayhem! ^_^

To the left we have Dragon Ball GT Adventure Pack Series featuring Goku, Trunks (with Giru on his shoulder) and Pan. I can't find any markings on the figures and the slightly poor paint job would lead me to suspect these might be bootlegs, but I can't be really sure. As far as Dragonball Wiki can tell me, the manufacturer is unknown and the release date as well. Shame really, because the sculpt itself isn't bad, the paint is just a little "off" overall.
Top right, we have two stickers that came on top of a round bubble gum box lid. The best before date on the back of the box says 2002! I vaguely remember this bubblegum being sold in a few selected cheap stores back then. I recall buying this same brand, but the "gift" was some rub on tattoos instead of stickers. The bubble gum wasn't anything special that I can remember.
Down right. What are these? Game chips, tokens or coins, whatever you like to call them? It doesn't translate to the picture very well, but the red color is metallic and for whatever reason the Krillin one is slightly "shinier" than the others. On the back there's a star motif and it says "official"  and they all have different numbers. Krillin is labeled 5, Vegeta 4 and Raditz 2. They are made of thick plastic, so you can't just bend and break them easily.

Awesome Stickers!! With scenes not only from the series, but also TV specials/ movies! Hmm.... "gum lollipop" doesn't sound that good to me. If I would be picking my favorite sticker out of these, I'd choose number 25, Vegeta!

Assortment of collectible cards and game cards. There were so many of them game cards I didn't bother to photograph all of them. After all, I do prefer the collectible story cards instead of  the card game I will never understand the rules of. My favorites are the cut-in-half Freeza and possessed Piccolo <3

These ones definitely have to be game chips, because on the back side there are points, numbers and stuff. These are made out of much thinner plastic that could break much more easily than the black coins above. Favorites here are Tapion, "farewell" Goku and Super Buu smacking Goku and Vegeta on the head!

Kid Goku, Super Buu, Emperor Pilaf, Fortuneteller Baba and Grandpa Gohan DX Vinyl Series by Banpresto. When I first laid my eyes upon the Buu figure I naturally assumed that it was portraying Kid Buu, but it turned out to be Super Buu in chibi-style for real. I'm a little disappointed, I wanted Kid Buu! XD Anyways, all of the figures are very neat, and I'm very happy to add my very first Pilaf, Baba and Gohan pieces to my collection! I've found a whole new love for Pilaf ever since Battle of the Gods came out, he is so darn cute in  the movie!

Piccolo (Ultimate Figure Series?) and Trunks with his arsenal of switchable hands and faces. Yup, none of the figures came in their original packaging so I don't know the exact series they belong to, like Trunks here, despite my quick google search. It's obvious which one is the higher quality out of these two. Trunks isn't by no means my favorite character while Piccolo on the other hand is. That' why I'm sad to say that it's quite ugly! The green color of his skin is all wrong! Unfortunately, Trunks wins this round, all the little details of the sculpt are astonishing and not to mention they got his colors right!


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Not related to this, but I'm fighting the urge to change my banner again and maybe also the background, but I'm kinda busy with other things now so that'll have to wait.

Everything's Better with Dinosaurs

Front & back cover

Yes, this is about a sticker book. I'm not going to say much about this one, except that the concept in all its ridiculousness is freaking awesome! This sticker book is also, like the Velociraptor from my previous post, from the weekend cruise I was on a while ago. When I flipped through the pages and saw the cool images it withheld, I couldn't resist buying one.

Map of the world & example page

Background landscape

Jurassic Park III, anyone?

Various stickers & background

This whatchamacallit-Rex & Stegosaurus are my favorites

Battle armoured Woolly rhinoceros & Triceratops 

War painted, armoured Dinosaurs with guns mounted on their backs? This needs to be made into a movie. Seriously.
No? I guess I've to settle with watching Dino-Riders instead........