When I was a kid, I wasn’t one to often play with dolls action figures… I much preferred things such as books, the outdoors, and the joys of DOS running on a blazing 12MHz 286.
Last week a friend sent me a gift certificate for J-List, a online store for Japanese products. To be honest, the site isn’t all that great…It’s a pain to navigate, their search engine always returns completely unrelated results, and their selection of Japanese language materials is less than stellar. Lacking a desire to purchase anything in particular, I poked around the site and selected a few things which stood out. I ended up choosing a figure of Tsuruya-san, a character from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Despite her limited role in the anime, she’s one of my favorite characters. Upon making my decision, I realized something… the last time I desired an action figure was the time I begged my mom for a Megazord when I was 8 or 9. Clearly this purchase of Tsuruya was a noteworthy event.
At checkout I was presented with a number of shipping options, ranging from 4 days to 8 weeks. Because the Tsuruya figure alone didn’t exceed the total value of the gift certificate, I was able to choose the fastest shipping method and pay only $4. Sweet. On the 17th I received an email informing me my order was ready to ship, and I expected an email containing the tracking number to follow shortly thereafter.
Come the 22nd, I had yet to receive a tracking number. Moreover, the action figure had inexplicably vanished from J-List. I feared the worse: The item was no longer available and/or backordered, and it would be weeks until I received my precious (gollum) Tsuruya. Regardless, I resolved to patiently wait one more day before I contact J-List about the order status.
Then, shortly after noon, came an unexpected ring of the doorbell. Out front a white SUV was parked, and a woman from the post office with an express delivery. Though initially perplexed due to the fact an ununiformed postal worker was making deliveries from an unmarked SUV, I was very glad to see the package was from Japan: Tsuruya had arrived.
All in all, I’m impressed with action figure. It has at least a dozen joints, and thus very posable. It also came with a second face, several hands, a stand, and for some reason another character’s (Emiri Kimidori) head. Not being apt at posing action figures, I left it pretty much as-is and merely placed it on the stand. Looks mighty nifty, methinks.
