Table of Contents

- Orange City -

// January 11, 2026

A belated write-up of my trip to the City of Orange~

I didn't know this city existed until I passed through it on my way to somewhere else last year. After a quick Google, I learned that the downtown area—the so called "Orange Circle", as the locals called it—seems like a cool place to check out, and I've been thinking about returning here someday. That day is today :D

This circle is about 50% antique stores and 50% food places. My hometown had a similar antique store; dunno why but I always thought that the store was just a Special Local Store—I didn't know there are other stores like it! I like visiting antique stores. Often times the stuff they sell are way overpriced and not appealing to my specific niche, but it's always a joy to browse everything and get lost in the store :P Although I came with the intention of buying something small, like a trinket as a memento, I didn't end up buying anything. Still had fun though!

  1. Rocks and Minerals collections! I wonder if someone donated a collection they no longer wanted, or if this is the kind of educational kit that you can buy online. I couldn't get a good look at it, cuz I didn't want to call over a staff to open and case only to end up not buying it lol. I think it was like $50, so a little pricey. The field guide is Rocks and Minerals, A Golden Guide by Herbert S. Zim and Paul R. Shaffer.
  2. This one's pretty cool. Old transit brochures/booklets fascinate me. Would these be considered ephemera? I thinks so. I collect museum brochures in much the same way, but I don't display them so I have no idea what to do with them haha :P Don't want to get rid of them either because it's like a piece of history!
  3. Some space shuttle stickers. Are they from the period? Most likely, but you can find them for much cheaper on ebay lol. This is what I do when I go to antique stores: I find something I'm somewhat interested in buying → I search it up on ebay → turns out it's cheaper on ebay, so if I really want it I could just buy it online → yeah I don't want it that much. Great money-saving strategy if I do say so myself. The sticker on the very top is STS-61-C. When I saw it I was like, huh, Nelson, as in Bill Nelson, the would-be NASA administrator? Turns out, yep, that's the one!

Took a little break to eat lunch. I got some ice cream 😋 The store is Afters Ice Cream; I got a scoop of mango sorbet and a scoop of matcha berry crunch. The store felt really empty (big space, high ceiling, lots of seats, but I was the only customer in the store) so the vibe was lowkey not vibing. The ice cream was really good though. At first I thought there's no way I could finish the whole thing, but I ended up finishing it lol. The texture is interesting it's not very ice cream-y... it's like slushy, but in ice cream form. IDK how to describe it. It's good, would recommend.

You know I went around today hoping to find Transformers 💯 Before I got into Transformers, all of my interests are so niche that it's basically impossible to find anything out in the wild. If I bought anything today it would've been this guy. I think it's an ornament? $16 is kinda crazy though I would not pay more than $10 sorry 🥀 For the same price I could buy a Blokees lmao. The one on the right is a Matchbox figure! Pretty cool. These antique stores have a ton of vehicle minifigs, mostly Hot Wheels. I imagine it'd be a treasure trove if you're into that sort of things. Although I did keep an eye out for anything similar to Transformers alt modes... didn't find anything unfortunately ᐠ(ᐛ)ᐟ

I imagine stores like this are also a treasure trove for anyone into presidential elections. Lots of campaign memorabilia. I guess I should consider myself lucky that my brief hyper(?)fixation was on a none-president historical figure, because otherwise there'd be tons of stuff to collect lol.

Now this, this is what I came for! I was hoping to find some old, vintage Transformers toys, and what a pleasant surprise this is. I think these prices are lowkey rip offs even for original G1 toys, but what do I know. I'm glad that I don't gaf about these characters LMAO. I'm determined to be a Megatron and Optimus Prime only collector because I know that once I buy a figure solely because I think it's a cool figure, it's over for me. "Well I don't care about the character all that much but the transformation is really cool..." and then BOOM next thing you know I'll be trying to complete a shelf and I'm more broke than ever before.

  1. The Transformers Quickswitch ($275): I guess this guy is like the Autobot version of Sixshot? Sorry to the two Quickswitch fans out there but he sounds like a glup shitto type character. His TF Wiki page is so short lol.
  2. The Transformers Ramjet ($100): I'm partial to flyers, especially Decepticon flyers. I just think aerial vehicles are cooler than ground vehicles :P
  3. Transformers Collaborative Tonkanator ($125): When I saw this I was like wtf why is there an Autobot construction combiner that I'v never heard of. Turns out it's a recolored G1 Devastator called Tonkanator that came out in 2022.

My curiosity got the better of me and I went into this military store. Since it's all antique stores at this plaza, I half-expected this store to be selling maybe military-related memorabilia. Turns out that's not the case at all—it's mostly military clothing (military surplus?) and stuff that looks like they would make for good hiking gears. There was someone interested in buying a gun so the staff was doing a show-and-tell with the firearm. I think I've seen firearms in stores before, but this is the first time I saw someone actually trying to buy a gun over the counter. So that was certainly something. I wonder who's the target audience of this store.

The patches were the most interesting things I saw. I don't know much about military vehicles but I can appreciate them as cool feats of engineering :) Is it basic to say that SR-71 is really pretty? I think she's really pretty.

// In Conclusion

So yeah that was all I saw at Orange City's historic district! Will I ever return to this city? Probably not lol. But hey that's one more city I've visited in SoCal ;) I had fully intended to write this post on the same day as the trip, but alas I was too tired + got busy + didn't feel like writing it until now.

- Little Tokyo -

// January 17, 2026

My main goal today was to visit Paperpup Station and Happibara Station but I also wandered around the Japanese Village Plaza :D I didn't take any photos while I was in the stores, but there was a lot of people! Harajuku Day was also happening that day so there was probably more people than usual at the Little Tokyo Galleria. I saw lots of people dressing up and beautiful coords and was like "it makes sense that Little Tokyo would have a higher concentration of people wearing J-Fashion" but it makes more sense that it's because there's an event happening LOL.

The last time I was in Little Tokyo was probably years ago 🤔 At the time I don't think either of the aforementioned stores were even opened yet! They're artist alley stores... it's built for me guys... it scratches that itch of local artist alley that I need to sustain my desire to spend money on goods 💕💸 I saw quite a few of artists that I recognized from previous cons/AA events in SoCal and I felt quite accomplished at that <3

This was me walking around Little Tokyo LOL.

There was lots of Gundam stuff which I guess shouldn't have been a surprise. I wanted to spin the Mobile Suit Gundam Ensemble one but it was kinda pricey and the clear plastic ones look really bad 🥲 Knowing my luck, I'll definitely gonna get the ones I don't want... Still pretty cool to see tho! Maybe I'll get into Gundam one day who knows. I kinda wanna buy a gunpla that looks cool without doing any prior research.

The coolest shop I saw today was Jungle Hobby Shop! They had mostly Gundam stuff but there were some Transformers too. There was a big o' Legends LG43 Trpyticon in the display window going for $199.99, which is honestly not a bad price considering it's $459.99 on TFSource right now?? One of the staff said there's an Omega Supreme too but I didn't see it; maybe I'm just blind lol.

Also the coolest thing happened while I was in the store. I was standing around the Transformers area when the speaker started playing The Touch and I literally reacted like this:

You ever seen that gif of a 3D horse vibrating shaking struggling to contain itself? Yeah... So anyways I was lingering around that area browsing stuff. A staff noticed the Megatron and Optimus plushie in my itabag and commented that "this is the perfect song for you huh?" I kinda just smiled awkwardly and was like "Yeah lol". Then the staff pointed me to the sections of the store where they have Transformers stuff and casually asked me if I like Galvatron, which was kind of a random question to ask, right? Being completely honest, I said no I don't care much for Galvatron, I'm more of a Megatron-only collector. Well, turns out they're trying to give away this Galvatron figure, for free! It's a KO (knockoff) figure, so legally they can't sell it at the store. (The store does buyback and someone sold them the figure.) The staff said they've been trying to give him away the past couple of days but no one wanted him lol. Hey who doesn't like free stuff? Not me! Thank you nice Jungle staff I am now a proud(?) owner of a Mech Fan Toys KO Galvatron, my first KO TF toy. The crazy thing is I'm pretty sure this is a KO of the Mech Fan Toys Galvatron, which is already made by a 4th party company, making this toy a knockoff of a knockoff LMAO. So technically this is a 5th party toy which is hilariously ridiculous. I got it for free though with a nice story to tell, so I'm not complaining. It shall have a spot on my evergrowing TF shelf ✌

There was a Humikane Shimada Optimus Prime Model Kit in the store! There were a few (non-TF) Bishoujo figures too. A staff told me that they've gotten Megatron and Optimus Bishoujo figures before but they didn't stay on the shelf for long... One day they shall be on my shelf 🙏 Really hoping I'd find one out in the wild so I can do some Impulsive Purchase™. Other notable toys I saw were Masterpiece Ghost Starscream, Ramjet, and I think Skywarp. Might come back and check their online store once in a while to see if they have anything I want.

More cool Transformers toys yay. I'm pretty sure the first one is Legacy Elita-1, which has to be my favorite toy of her <3 I love the pastel-y colors and the overall sculpt of the mold. The $33.99 price tag makes no sense though especially for an out-of-box figure; there's plenty going for a cheaper price on ebay even when you take shipping cost into consideration¯\_(ツ)_/¯

An unopened Transformers Prime First Edition Arcee feels like a rare find. She looks surprisingly show-accurate. IDK about paying $102.99 but I hope she ends up in the loving home of an Arcee fan.

I think these two are Mechtech Dark of the Moon Voyager Optimus Prime, one with blaster ($32.99) and another with battle blades ($49.99). I was really tempted to buy the former but 1) 30 DOLLARS?? 2) why are the colors so dull 3) I can see literal dust gathering on the figure 💀 Also I realized this just now, but I actually have a DOTM Mechtech Bumblebee that I got as a gift from a friend! If I ever come across this figure again I might buy it to pair with Bumblebee.

// Haul of the Day

  1. Display Stand I got at Daiso. I drew bishoujo Megatron on a wood slice but I didn't have a good way to display it. Hopefully this will work.
  2. 2024 Racing Miku acrylic standee. 2024 is one of my favorite Racing Miku designs <3
  3. KO Mech Fan Toys Galvatron. He comes with a ball chain and a tiny matrix of leadership which fits perfectly on my Optimus nui :3 You'll probably find photos of it in Photography in the future.
  4. My favorite thing I bought today is this adorable pigeon hair clip by cattpucino. When I bought this I didn't know it was LADS merch lol I just thought it was a cute pigeon. Turns out it's not even a pigeon it's a crow lmao. This is Grumpy Crow and apparently he's associated with this character called Sylus. I hope this is niche enough that the vast majority of people will just assume it's a pigeon/crow. Sorry to any LADS fans on campus who sees me wearing this and thinks I'm one of them.
  5. Bug Type Pokemiku sticker by nonomoe 🥺 I've bought other Pokemiku stickers from this artist before and I like them a lot. Their art style is so gorgeous.