What an update this is going to be. As a starting point this is about modern grimer and muk releases that get released every now and then, lucky for me. I do regularly searches in pokemon center webstore since they occasionally add some minor grimer and muk items that i manage to buy from ebay afterwards. But this time it was big, several pieces including clothes, figures, pins etc, i also got several messages about them here and on ig from different people since people guessed correctly about my interest towards them. I didn’t want to buy it all since a lot of artworks were repeated but what i wanted i yearned so badly. But you can’t buy anything from pokemon center from mainland Europe. This was were eveyone’s favourite gyarados enthusiastic stepped in picture.
@azulryu very kindly agreed to middleman my relatively big order which i couldn’t thank enough. Let’s take a look at what he helped me to obtain from pokemon center, this is the first phase of what makes me deeply grateful for him.
The clothes look absolutely awesome, be it halloween or christmas or wednesday, i’m rocking it with style from now on. The only issue with them is that i forgot that European L is different from US L so i now have to start drinking grease to fit in them properly. But the size issue doesn’t take anything from the beautiful looks of the clothes. The figure is also a gorgeous piece and it found immediately a place from my display, regardless of the fact that i thought it was about the size of re-ment figures but it was around three times bigger in every dimension instead, i guess everything just is bigger in US. It was also the first official figure type product of alolan grimer, about time! The pin also is a perfect display piece, representing that cool looking horror film poster theme also featured in the t-shirt and sweatshirt.
But that’s not all. At this point i have to mention that a search for different metal figures of grimer and muk has been what i’ve hunted most viciously regarding non-tcg already for some time, and with one type of figure being the most wanted. Muk & Professor Oak figure was something that took me almost two years until i managed to obtain even the first variant last summer, that was with a help of @Quuador but it was actually two of the existing four variants that i managed to get at the same time then, i’m so behind with my posts that i actually haven’t posted them here at all yet. But they were so beautiful in hand and my heart yearned for the other two variants so i could display and admire them all together. So my heart skipped a beat when my searches alerted me that a third variant was up for grabs on ebay, only to see that the seller only ships in US so i’m forced to use forwarding services with monstrous fees and shipping costs in Finland.
But i’m not forced to do that since it’s exactly the same time frame where Azulryu is helping me, and he agrees that i can send this package too to be middlemanned with my pokemon center order, later i also learn that he had to build a custom made box to be able to send my order. Couldn’t get any better than this, pokemon center order and the third variant of my most wanted figures, right? Well guess what, just after the appearance of that third muk & oak variant the fourth and final variant i was hunting also gets listed on ebay, and again only to be shipped in US, what are the odds. You can bet i was messaging Azulryu again and you already know he was willing to help me with this listing too. It feels unbelievable that i searched even one variant of my favourite figure so long and then i get all four in two events where both times i get two of them simultaneously, and also both times with help of E4 people. I’m adding here a photo of all four figures next to each others, this is the second phase of my gratitude for Azulryu.
So i got everything i wanted and it was all beyond amazing, But i also got more, something that i didn’t expect and what felt even more amazing in massive amounts. Azuryu had messaged me about a manga book featuring grimer that he was willing to gift for me so i knew i was also getting an extra item with my package, but what i didn’t know was that he included so much more. My eyes were wide open when i opened all the extra packages he had included. There were tcg, non tcg, art drawn by him, gifts for my kids and i’m not sure how but even multiple grimer and muk items that i hadn’t ever even seen gifted for me! I opened every package in absolute shock.
I still don’t understand how he managed to add this many grimer and muk items i was missing and that i was not even aware of in the package. The cards he had drawn immediately found their place with my art commissions too. I’ve also enjoyed different ways of preserving pokemon tcg history but i’ve put off doing it with modern ultra rares since there’s so much of different rarities in english and japan that i was missing that it would get in way of my other projects if i concentrated on that, so i’ve abandoned the idea earlier even though i’ve really wanted to do something about it. But he gifted me so much of them with massive variety that it was a no-brainer now. I’ve placed all the different ultra rare variants in english and japanese i now have in a binder and the variety of modern pokemon is a beautiful sight to see.
I didn’t have any clue of the wild ride of gratitude i would be getting into when i first asked if Azulryu could help me but doing so led in one of my favourite collecting experiences ever. I can’t thank you enough and i’m glad i can call you my friend!