1st Anniversary Celebration - The Year That Was...

Happy Birthday OptimisticPenguin.com!!!! Yes that's right its my websites 1st anniversary and to kick off celebrations I thought we could reminisce about the year gone by.

First lets kick of the celebration with some cake!!!!

My wonderful mother brought the penguins a mini cake this morning in celebration of OptimisticPenguin.com's 1st Birthday!!!

So we lit the candle and Mr. Mitzuku my very own Optimistic Penguin did the honors of making a wish and blowing out the candle. 

They then got down to the real business of eating the Cake!!! and omg it was tasty! 

Any way enough of that it's time to take a trip down memory lane...

I remember it as if it was yesterday, one sunny but cold day in May I was sitting at my computer, a wad of cash sitting next to me in an envelope. My 22nd Birthday had come and gone and I was contemplating on what I should spend my spoils, then by chance as I perused Trademe a NZ online auction store I came across a figure which caught my eye, Fraulein Revoltech Ami Futami. I viewed her eying her up lustily and then decided oh to hell with it I shall get her and see for myself whether she is worth the asking price, and so just a few short days later she arrived at my doorstep, and well I was thrilled she was so cute, so articulated, so anime, I was hooked I needed to find out more about this strange and wonderful toy.

And thus I found myself swept up into the world of figure collecting, as I googled Fraulein Revoltech a whole new world opened up to me, one which excited the anime-aholic in me and before I knew it all my Birthday spoils were spent and I had four new figures living in my room, Ami Futami, Briareos Hecatonchires, Deunan Knute, and Fraulein Yuki Nagato.

Shortly after acquiring more figures I contemplated the thought of starting my own blog as many other collectors have done, but I didn't know the first thing about blogging, but I plunged on in and on July 6th 2009 I had my first post and OptimisticPenguin.com was born.

Well that's enough of that story lets have a little look back on the year that was.

First there were the Fraulein girls, beautiful and gorgeous, Haruhi, Yuki and Mikuru have now moved abroad and live with a fellow Deviant Art member.  

Then there were my Appleseed figure who I love dearly, and then some costume works by me, my custom re-paints of the IdolMaster girls and my custom figure Optimistic Penguin, and my very first hand at a Gundam, and custom re-paint too. 

However the bulk of my collection swiftly became Figma. Some of my favourite figures being Figma Cute and Figma Marisa. 

Oh my just look at all the figures!! 

Then I got adventurous and got my first ActSta, Queen's Blade Revoltech, and Nendoroid, each captivated me in a special way and are welcome additions to my collection.  

Most recently I acquired some Yamaguchi Revoltech and more boys!!! My collection was lacking figures of the male kind and so the boys from Sengoku Basara and Vash the Stampede have joined the group.

As well as my growing collection we celebrated our first figure Christmas in Cafe Rock, Mikuru's very own Cafe, and she also held a great New Years Eve Party for the figures while I was on holiday. The figures even got into the Easter cheer and shared Easter eggs together. 

And for Christmas we had our first special series and the figures made their own Twelve Days of Christmas song for you all to enjoy. 

The figures also started up their own theatre company dubbed Figure Comic and began churning out stories from romance and scandal to war and death! 

And recently I have been covering and reviewing the various miniatures that I have collected which provide enjoyment to both me and my figures lives. 

Also in true girl style there has been a lot of photo shoots involving borrowing each others clothing and dressing up. 

I think it's probably one of their favourite pass-times, they are always trying on each others things and making new fashionable styles for themselves. 

And they all just love posing for the camera. 

And so that was a little look back at the year that was, we now look forward to many more years of fun and excitement that you can share with you! 

Lots of Love from an Optimistic Penguin ^.^