I was cleaning up the game room earlier today and figured I'd post an update on my collection -- my last post in the thread was 2017 with a blurry Instagram picture and before that I last posted in Summer 2010 (I think~). Premium Bandai really was a gamechanger and I'm so thankful!!!

The clear V1 was my very first Digimon! I found it (and another clear) at a Big Lots on the same day the Digimon anime premiered on Fox Kids, so it has a lot of sentimental value for me. I sold the other clear on eBay a while back because I had ended up with a lot more v-pets over the years.

There's a funny story with the boxed V1 pet: I was in East Lansing, MI for a cross county meet back in 2014 when I stopped by a Disc Replay to look for some video games. As I was checking out, there was a guy next to me who had brought in some stuff to sell and the clerk told him that they could take everything except one item...a CIB V1 v-pet! I couldn't believe it -- the ONE and ONLY time I visited this store was when someone was trying to trade in a Digimon! As soon as I finished paying, I waited outside for him to come out (I tried to be as NOT creepy as possible lol) and mentioned that I was a huge Digimon fan and that I thought it was FATE that he happened to bring it in while I was there! He worked for a local Fox station that was cleaning out some storage and said it was an old contest prize they never gave away, so he happily took $10 and I walked away with a ton of valuable games and a new v-pet. :)

I never got on the Pendulum train until very late in the game -- I got my original Deep Savers off Yahoo Japan Auctions while I was teaching in Japan and luckily the re-releases came out a few years later. When the Ver20 came out, my wife accidentally dropped one in the toilet (lol) so I bought an extra. The poor thing still works but it has no sound and the pendulum's a little wonky. I put a ton of time and effort into the black Ver20 so I'm happy I got to experience the awesomeness of the Pendulum even if it took a little longer than I had hoped. :)

The US devices are my childhood treasures...I grew up in a pretty rural area so I spent a lot of time walking around or shaking my Digivices while watching TV. A few good friends in elementary school were also really into Digimon so we'd play together and battle all the time -- so much so that my red D-3 got taken away by my 6th grade teacher once or twice. I wanted a Japanese D-Terminal for the LONGEST time and I finally nabbed the gold one while we were living in Hokkaido. There aren't many devices that I'm still interested in getting, but the red and yellow JP D-3s are gorgeous and I'd love to have them one day. The orange Digivice stopped working a long time ago and I currently have a broken blue battery cover on it right now...I broke so many battery covers back in the day! As a preteen I called Bandai USA support a few times and they sent me replacement battery covers for both the Digivice and v-pets...for free! They were awesome!

Tamers is easily my favorite season of the anime so I've always gravitated towards the D-Ark as being my favorite electronic. I only had the US D-Power as a kid and enjoyed it but I spent a lot of time on Megchan's boards drooling over the Japanese versions and the card slash mechanic. I picked up a lot of my Japanese D-Arks on YJA when I got my first job in college, but my Ver15 D-Arks are the crown jewels of my collection because they were wedding gifts from Chiaki J. Konaka! All I need now is a green D-Ark and I'll be happy with what I have. It looks so cool! I also included a cute Guilmon drawing that my wife did for me alongside a Culumon stamp that one of my fellow teachers in Japan made for me before I left. The Tukimon notebook was my version of Takato's Guilmon notebook that I made in 7th grade back in 2001. I'm glad I held onto it! :)

I LOVE the D-Scanners so much! My black one was purchased from Toys N Joys when I was in 8th grade and I got the blue one for cheap off YJA while we were in Japan. I think I got my US V3 here on WtW and my childhood D-Tector V1 got super corroded and I was stupid and chucked it in the trash a few years ago. I need a new battery cover screw for the US V3 so I really regret throwing it away for that reason alone. I found the Digiwindow during my first trip to my town's Hard Off when I got to Japan and it was the only Digimon electronic I found in Muroran -- I didn't see anything else until I hit up Mandarake in Tokyo before we left. I've only got one iC (the orange one) and the rest are the US Data Links/Bursts. I'd like to pick up a Japanese Burst one day...

I'm not the biggest fan of the Minis but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Neo and the D-Spirit. I guess the D-Spirit is the closest we're getting to a V-Tamer Digivice for now (please prove me wrong Premium Bandai). I recently made a friend locally who's really into the v-pets so once the COVID 19 stuff dies down I'm hoping that we can boot up the Twins and do a good run on those. I'm also a huge fan of the Xros Loader -- I'd LOVE to get a nice full color, backlit device from Bandai again...please...please!!!

Can I just say that I LOVE the design of the Applidrive? The DUO is very stunning visually but it feels a lot like a toy and very plastic-y...but the original is a nice solid device. It sucks that it doesn't have much you can do with it, even if you've got chips.  I'm loving the DMXs and really can't wait for my X3s to get here...they're so beautiful and I'm happy we're still getting new Digimon devices in 2020. There were some rough spots where it felt like the end was near but we keep trucking on as a fandom. :)

Thanks for looking and this website and all the people on the forums have kept this passion alive for me nonstop since I was a preteen. Now that I've hit 30, I'm so extra thankful that I've had this hobby and people to share it with. Going back into this thread, dead images and all, is a treat and cheers to all the fellow Digimon fans and collectors out there! Keep it up!

(originally posted in the "Your collection (pictures)" thread on the Digimon Electronics board at With the Will)

Matters of the Heart: Transcending Time with Clamp's "Wish"

Even if I don't consider Cardcaptors, Clamp was one of my first real introductions to the world of manga and anime. I started picking up the Chobits manga when I was a teenager and it was the first longish series that I actually finished -- I can still remember how it felt to finally pick up Volume 8 and see how everything ended! I think that's one of the strengths of manga as a serialized format; even though American releases usually didn't follow the same weekly/bi-monthly/monthly schedule used in Japan, it still forces you to take in a story over a longer period of time. I think that sensation really adds to the heart and emotional weight associated with many manga/anime because, especially now in an age of streaming and bingeing, you have time to reflect on each release before the next one comes out. For example, the first English-translated volume of Chobits came out in April 2002 while the final book was released in October 2003, meaning you'd have to wait a year and half to go from the beginning of the story to the end. That's actually pretty similar to the Japanese release timeline (even though reading through the 8 volumes straight might take only an afternoon or so)! By the time I got to the final chapter, I felt like Hideki and Chii were a part of me. I was so emotionally invested in the series! I mean, how could I not be invested when I had spent a year and a half (and numerous allowances) getting to know everyone in the series while remaining unaware of what would ultimately happen to everyone in Chobits?

I still have my Atashi plush from Chobits, purchased from the former anime mecca known as Suncoast Motion Picture Company.

It's funny I had that whole walk down memory lane about Chobits because I just read Clamp's 1997 series Wish in the completely opposite way, going through it all in a day and a half. We had to do laundry yesterday and one of my favorite things to do at the laundromat is read, so I picked up the somewhat-recently-purchased (for cheap! $3 a pop) 4 volume Tokyopop release and got to work. Even though Chobits was my first real Clamp adventure, I went through Tokyo Babylon, X/1999, and the original Cardcaptor Sakura in 2019 -- meaning I have a deeper sense of Clamp's style and oeuvre now than I did in 2002. Because of that, I think I could better appreciate elements of Wish like the Yue-reminiscent angel designs or the big twist in Volume 4 that reminds me so much of the final volume of Tokyo Babylon, but more subtle and effective when it comes to foreshadowing and execution. That kind of storytelling growth from Clamp makes sense since Tokyo Babylon was released in the early 90s, but that element couldn't be properly appreciated in English since the translated version of Wish came out in 2002 while Tokyo Babylon didn't come out in America until 2004 -- so being able to appreciate the growth of a manga artist (or a collective of them) in the context of their bigger publication timeline is something I really value in 2020 *oops, I almost typed 2019! lol*.

I Googled to see if I could find old LJ posts I had made about Chobits when I came across my manga collection posted on Serebii.net's forums -- literally 14 years ago today. Freaky!

I guess one of the big reasons Chobits immediately came to mind for me while reading Wish was because both series are so concerned with loving someone and trying to understand and articulate one's feelings. Even as a teenager, I could recognize that Clamp valued authenticity and truly understanding (and being honest about) our wants and desires, especially when other people are involved -- so now, as a married 30 year old, I can relate with stories like Chobits and Wish in a fundamentally different and experiential way (my only romantic relationships as a 14 year old were unrequited lol). Considering that the main characters of Wish include angels and demons, I think the series is also really interesting because it paints love as something distinctly human (something also present in Chii's identity as a robot/persocom). In order for these characters to fall in love, they have to sacrifice their divine/demonic powers -- but, as a result, they gain something (I'd argue, both personally and thematically) much more powerful and fulfilling. :)

Lastly, I really enjoyed reading through Wish because the last few chapters bring up some interesting questions about destiny. As I mentioned, angels and demons (and other spiritual beings) interact with humans in Wish and that also implies the presence of God and Satan. Even though neither is specifically seen in the series, they're often mentioned and their actions behind the scenes make up a lot of what happens to the cast. I think the last volume in particular brings up the question of agency: who's really in control of our lives and does God care about our wants as individuals or the bigger picture? I won't spoil the ending (the presence of a twist is hinted at repeatedly, but I honestly couldn't predict the revelation itself) but between the final conflict and an event witnessed through an act of time travel, I'd argue that the series places a huge emphasis on looking forward and maintaining hope. Just because things may look bad in the moment, you never know what's waiting in your future -- just be true to yourself and try to do the right thing.

Game Pile - #8 - Pokémon Box (Gamecube)

#8 - Pokémon Box (Gamecube)

I searched for this a lot before I ever got my hands on a copy. In fact, I think I had a saved search on eBay for Box for 4-5+ years! I originally started looking for it when it was still going for relatively cheap but couldn't find one in good condition for a good enough deal. Luckily, this copy came in to Disc Replay around the same time as Steel Battalion and Panzer Dragoon Saga (boy, that was an expensive period of time lol) so I finally got my hands on it. I still hate that I don't have the memory card or outer box but I won't complain. I remember when this was on sale through the old Pokemon Center website (along with the Pokemon Mini games) but I was in 7th grade with no money or reliable way to buy things off the Internet like I do now. I really take online shopping for granted now -- it used to take an act of Congress to get my mom or grandma to let me use their credit card online (although I sent many, many, many money orders for small eBay and forum purchases when I was a pre-teen). This is one of those games that I've been really tempted to sell when I needed some quick $$$ but I associate memories with it and I think it's a cool relic to have as a Pokemon fan. It's pretty cool to think that I've got Pokemon from the Ruby and Sapphire games on my 3DS -- that's one of the things that has really made Pokemon worth it for me long-term.

Memorable Track: Hall of Fame

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Last Time: #7 - Fox Hunt (Playstation)

Pokemon Go and Exploring Town in the Summer

Diana and I have been playing a lot of Pokemon Go lately. I've always been a huge fan of Pokemon but I had never played the mobile game until maybe three or four weeks ago -- some friends here on campus had been playing so I went ahead and took the plunge. Funnily enough, Diana had actually started playing way back when the game first came out (I didn't because of my 2GB data allotment from Verizon). Living in Lexington at the time, I was amazed at how many people were playing -- huge groups of people were going back and forth across town and UK's campus. We noticed quite a few people playing in Muroran too, but my cheapo SIM card had similar data restrictions so I've always watched from the sidelines until now.

Speaking of Japan, Diana and I have a nice inside joke relating to the game. At our Japanese wedding reception, the principals of our schools gave short speeches and my kocho-sensei (who had just started at Shimizugaoka the month before) said his first memory of me was when he surprised me while I was playing Pokemon Go at work. I definitely did my share of slacking off at work (the couch in the English office was a perfect spot for a quick nap) but I was low key offended because I didn't even play Pokemon Go! In all actuality, he probably saw me playing Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (because I was playing that a LOT at the time). Now that I think about it, I did have the go board (the board game with stones) set up in the office, so maybe he was talking about that? I wonder...

Us and the Hokkaido BOE crew

Anyways, it seems as if Pokemon Go has had a little resurgence in Wise lately. Or maybe it never died down at all? I'm not really sure but I remember someone might have told me that there were new PokeStops and Gyms in the area -- either way, we've actually connected with quite a few people since we've started playing. Other staff on campus, current students, and even some friends from back in high school have all crossed our path in the game!

I'm definitely interested in the actual gameplay aspect of Go but I think the social element has really gotten me thinking. I spent literally hundreds upon hundreds of hours in the older Pokemon games, especially the Gameboy Advance generation, breeding and trying to build a strong team with EV training -- only to rarely have the opportunity to play with anyone in person! I still remember walking through West Town Mall in Knoxville with my GBA Wireless Adapter hooked up, hoping that someone there would be trying to play but I never had any luck. I'm very thankful for high school friends like April who did play with me back then, but most of those Pokemon ended up unused until the newer games came out (fun fact: those EV trained Advanced Generation Pokemon are currently chilling on my Ultra Sun 3DS cart -- oh, the wonders of technology!). Pokemon Go, in a sense, has helped me relive the social experience of Pokemon that I haven't really had since Red/Blue were in their heyday. All in all, it's been a great opportunity for me and Diana to go out walking. Whether it's in town or on campus, we've had a lot of fun exploring Wise on some awesome summer nights.

View this post on Instagram

"I think we'll have good memories of summer in Wise"

A post shared by Collin Skeen (@zeskeenmachine) on Jul 7, 2019 at 7:46pm PDT

Game Pile - #7 - Fox Hunt (Playstation)

#7 - Fox Hunt (Playstation)

Spencer and I played through a little bit of this one night and it was absolutely bonkers. I was never really exposed to FMV games when I was younger so I haven't played much in this genre -- but they're really interesting to look back on nowadays. As I was typing this, I literally thought, "haven't I written about this before?" It felt so familiar somehow. So I just googled around and realized that I wrote a blog entry for Monsters of Geek about Fox Hunt back in 2015. I had legitimately forgotten about it. Just went back and reread it. I mentioned the game was relatively cheap considering its rarity -- funny because it's $100+ nowadays. Anyways, it's crazy how you can come across something you wrote/sang/thought (what feels like) ages ago and immediately revisit the moment (or at least the general time). I'm happy looking back on my 2015, 25-year-old self. Maybe I subconsciously picked this game at random from my collection to post because my younger self wanted my current self to revisit that article and era of my past. Regardless, it's a cool feeling and I'm happy that I ended up picking Fox Hunt up from Half.com (RIP) which was like an eBay-operated Amazon Marketplace. I got some good deals there, like this one for about $20, but it was nice just having variety in places to online shop. I'll pour one out for you.

Favorite Track: "Elvis Slept Here"

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Last Time: #6 - Fighters Megamix (Saturn)

Game Pile - #6 - Fighters Megamix (Saturn)

#6 - Fighters Megamix (Saturn)

Fighters Megamix was actually the first Saturn game I ever bought. Whether I was working at G2K in Wise or Disc Replay in Lexington, I never saw too many Saturn games come into the store. Maybe it's a regional thing, but none of my friends had a Saturn growing up -- and one of them had a Virtual Boy! It's always been a little curious for me too because I spent a lot of time online when I was a kid and getting into video games. I spent so much time on GameFAQs that you'd figure I'd have a better understanding of what was out there. Then again, I could tell you all about the Wonderswan Crystal at the time, so maybe it's just a question of taste. ^^;; Anyways, between the two stores I ended up getting at least a few of the big Saturn games so I guess it's a question of quality over quantity. I've not put much time at all into Fighters Megamix but I hope that changes now that I've got the Saturn hooked up to a TV in the game room. I've always loved the idea of fighting with the Daytona car! I recently sold off a few games to pay for a Japan visit and this one was on the chopping block for a moment but I figured I'd like to play it when people come over sometime. I used to be pretty anal about removing the stickers from my games but over time they became a kind of badge of honor -- especially when something I bought for cheap gets expensive later on down the road.

Memorable Track: Ending F ~ Young Guys

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Last Time: #5 - Pocket Monsters: Green (Game Boy)

Monster Raising: The Summer of Digital Monster X

I've been a little bummed out lately and I'm still not 100% sure what it's from. Maybe it's because I work on a college campus and it's currently Summer Break -- meaning that I'm, on a daily basis, reminded that professors and students are enjoying free time and summer vacations while I'm working my 8-5 job, looking forward to the upcoming four day July 4th weekend more than anything. I've gotten pretty productive when it comes to utilizing my free time, but I still find myself getting home from work, staying charged for a few hours, then ultimately falling asleep and wishing I had more free time. This means I really romanticize my weekends -- but I probably don't use them as efficiently as I could.

If I stop and replace weekends in that last sentence with summers, I think it's a fair analysis of the numerous summer vacations I had as a student or while unemployed. That makes me think my problem is a little more structural than circumstantial. Now, I think I took advantage of my youthful summers pretty well -- whether they were spent with friends, video games, music, or running -- but now that I understand what it's like to have a job where you don't get 2-3+ months of relatively uninterrupted free time, I think I'd try to squeeze even more from those summers of old. Still, I don't like to cry over spilled milk and there's no time like the present, so I've been trying to push myself to find little ways of increasing the density of my current, limited time. 

Even with that sense of initiative, summer brings back so many sense memories of glorious days spent lazing around, surfing the web, playing games, and just moving at my own pace. Being back in Wise, especially on campus, brings me back to when I lived here for Summer School one semester. It was pretty cool -- I was taking one class each session (Spanish 201/202) while working at G2K Games part time. I had just landed the job a few months before so it was my first summer spent away from home while getting paid! I had freedom and money. I played a lot of the original Nier, sang karaoke with my dormmates, and got into Digimon collecting hardcore.

Digital Monster X White

Hello, my name is Collin and I was addicted to Yahoo! Auctions Japan. Well, maybe not addicted but I got really into browsing through auctions and getting my hands on some Japan-exclusive Digivices and virtual pets that I had always wanted (and it happened again when we were living in Japan years later). I had grown up collecting the American Digimon electronics as they were coming out, but I was always aware of the much cooler and more functional Digimon toys being released in Japan. I managed to import one or two as Christmas/birthday gifts when I was a kid, but I never had a real opportunity to get any -- until that summer in Wise. I used an intermediary called Celga to import a few and I spent a lot of my summer playing around with them. I walked around with the pedometer devices and brought my virtual pets with me to work and class. They were like add-ons to activities in my every day life. Wanting to make progress on my D-3, for example, encouraged me to go running and walking more. Occasionally checking in on my Digimon and cleaning up its poop was a great way to destress and refocus during breaks at G2K or from our 2+ hour long Spanish class. In my pre-smartphone world of 2010, these side quests of sorts added new contexts to my daily activities and, looking back, I think I appreciate and remember more of that summer because of them. 

Bandai, the company that makes the Digimon toys, announced their newest iteration of the Digimon pet recently: the Digital Monster X Version 2. A new Digimon device comes out in Japan maybe once or twice a year, so I've gotten into the habit of picking them up as they come out. Considering the fact I don't buy much nowadays aside from manga, I don't feel too bad about pre-ordering them. Sometimes, when demand is really high, Bandai will split their release into waves, staggering the release by a month or two. After reading news saying this would be happening to the DMX2, I got the urge to bring my original Digital Monster X with me to work. The Digimon virtual pets are relatively low-maintenance so it's easy to keep one powerful and evolving without much time put into it -- perfect for an office environment where short mental breaks are much appreciated. 

My Instagram story from 2019.3.29

I've had a good bit of fun with the Digital Monster X since it came out back in March. Both versions are essentially the same with the biggest difference being which Digimon are available on each device. My favorites tend to be split across the two of them, so I always find a few to aim for regardless of which version I'm playing. Of course, I wouldn't really have any idea about specific evolution requirements or battle percentages or anything like that without the awesome guides and information collected by people on the net. I've been a longtime member of With the Will (my current account dates back to 2007) and that website along with the forum community have been invaluable resources for fans of the Digimon electronics. I doubt I'd appreciate the virtual pet experience as much without the multitude of information available nowadays, especially considering most of the enthusiast info is in Japanese. I never had the Pendulum X back in the day so the DMX is my first real experience with X-Antibody Digimon in v-pet form, but Diana and I watched through Digital Monster: X-Evolution, a fully CGI movie from 2005 that focuses on the X-Antibody storyline, so I've got at least a bit of an introduction from that. X-Antibody Digimon are a cool concept and it's awesome to see that they're still supporting the subset. Maybe we'll get a third version next year? I'd be excited for it! Compared to the days of wondering if Digimon, as a franchise, even had a future...we're living in some pretty good times.

I really love the designs of both DMX options -- the white/blue gives me total University of Kentucky vibes while the black/red really pops and is probably my favorite looking one in person. Considering their eye-catching design, it's cool bringing them to work occasionally and seeing if people notice them or have something to say. I was sometimes super nervous about being seen with them when I was younger -- mainly because Digimon was a relic of the early Pokemon days for most people. Nowadays, Digimon, Tamagotchi, and the whole monster raising genre has both nostalgia and freshness going for it. I came with one of my friends to a Friday Night Magic event at Cavalier Comics and one of the guys there started up a conversation because he saw my Digimon. It was a great time and it turned out we like a lot of the same stuff. Those are the types of interactions that I wished so badly to have when I was a kid so I'm very thankful to be able to experience them years later.

Celga's FB account used to leave really nice comments on my profile, too.

Right now I've got a Tokomon X and I'm hoping it makes it from V-mon X all the way to Dukemon X. If anything, it'll just take time and patience. I really do think keeping up with a Digimon increases my sense of responsibility. There are many times where I'll pass out (from drinking or the like) and wake up only to realize that I didn't feed my Digimon or put it to bed -- sometimes meaning that I just missed out on the evolution path I really wanted to get. Even though it's just a virtual pet, the sense of disappointment I felt after realizing my mistake -- especially considering my carelessness -- was very real. Thinking about the big picture of my life, I'd much rather make these kinds of careless mistakes while raising a Digimon -- but I think the lessons learned can carry over to my real life, too. In its own little way, I think my monster raising in Digimon is training me to be a better person, too. I should get my hands on the DMX2 in November or December, but hopefully I can make some memories and accomplishments on some of my older devices before then. There's actually a US release of the 20th Anniversary Version of the original pet coming out in August, and it's only selling for $20 -- making me hope that maybe Digimon will see a small resurgence of popularity in the West. If that can happen, I'd love to start playing Digimon with more people locally. That's the one part of my childhood Digimon fantasies that hasn't come true -- yet. 

EDIT: I knew Celga had commented on some pictures so I dug through my Facebook history. 

I was legitimately flattered at the age of 21. Still FB friends even now!