Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Today I am bringing to you a review and unboxing of some items from BTS's Hip Hop Monster stationery line. Since I am a Jin collector, I have only purchased his version of the goods I will be reviewing and unboxing. Since they are all relatively similar with the exception of their character designs, I hope this will be somewhat helpful to those looking into buying the goods themselves. Let's get right into it!
Bighit released the 1st wave of this last year at around the same time as The Red Bullet concert goods on their official shop as well as other online/offline retailers. I didn't make a pre-order myself at this time because I was still focusing on gathering the last bits and bobs of the more rare Jin merchandise for my collection. I figured it wasn't going to be sold out anywhere any time soon so I lagged a bit and didn't order them until I placed a pre-order for Infinite H's "Fly Again" album.
The lineup for this 1st wave of stationery includes the following goods:
- Figurines (a choice between 16cm or 6cm)
- Transparent cut stickers (9 pcs)
- Mirrors (pocket size. 4 designs)
- Mouse Pad (4 designs)
- Notebooks (Small, Medium, and Large sizes. 3 designs)
- Note Pads ( Medium and Large size. 4 designs)
- Clear File (7 designs)
- Paper Holder (4 designs)
- 365 Diary (4 designs)
- Pop Up Cards (can be purchased as a set or individually. 7 designs)
16cm and 6cm figurines, clear file, pop up card, Large and Medium notebooks.
Front and back of the clear file.
The clear file is your regular and standard size normal file. It is a shiny plastic material. I wouldn't recommend storing more than half your usual 150 counts stack of binder paper and what not in the clear file since the bottom binding can be exposed to possible damage such as tearing from too much pressure force. It is 220 x 310mm in dimensions.
Next up are the Medium and Large notebooks. I did not purchase the Small size notebook because I didn't really like the design they gave Jin's character for this size. However, it is somewhat similar to the Large size notebook.
Close up of the Large notebook.
Close up of the Medium notebook. He's holding a bowl of chicken lol. Isn't it so cute?
The back of both notebooks.
The inside view of the notebooks. They are stitched for binding. The stitch work looks good from the outside cover looking in, but not that great when viewed from inside as shown in the photo.
These notebooks are your regular everyday usage notebooks. Although the name of their given sizes are actually quite misleading since they are pretty small in actual sizes. The Large notebook is 146 x 206mm in dimensions. It's smaller than the standard size spiral notebooks you use for note taking which is 8 x 10 1/2 in (203 x 266.7mm). With this size comparison, you can pretty much have an idea of how the sizing for the Medium and Small notebooks fares out. The Medium notebook stands at 125 x 176mm while the Small notebook is 88 x 125mm in dimensions.They both have 64 pages in total. I recommend taking these sizes in consideration before purchasing them for actual usage.
Now moving on to the two last items, the pop up card and the figurines. The pop up card stands at a 75 x 75mm dimensions. It is made of cardboard material paper with a matte texture. The card comes with an envelope so that you can send or give the card to another on a special occasion. Inside there are lines that you can write a short message onto along with a pop up Hip Hop Monster.
Front and inside of the pop up card with envelope.
And finally the most cutest (although they are all equally cute) items of this stationery wave, the figurines. Bighit released these figurines of the Hip Hop Monsters in place of the sold out, super high in demand and sought after, rare plushie dolls that were released some time in late June early July of 2014. Personally I think Jin's character has the cutest design along with Jimin's and Kook's (though Kook's can be a bit derpy because of the eyes...but he's a bunny and bunnies are my favorite animal).
Front and back of the boxes. (white is 16cm. black is 6cm)
Both figurines out of their boxes for a closer look and size comparison. The 16cm figurine does not come with a black stand like the 6cm does. There are holes at the bottom of the 6cm figurine that you can assemble onto the stand yourself.
Closer look at the 6cm figurine. The paint job is about an 7.5/10, fairly decent. You can see in the photo a little white blotch between the figure's arm and his bulletproof jacket where it should have been painted with black. There are minor details of mistakes but overall it is fairly decent.
Closer look at the 16cm figurine. The paint job on this one is a 6.5/10 considering there are many noticeable mistakes. The black top outline of his bulletproof vest is about 5 millimeters off from where it should have stopped at. The paint looks like it was sprayed on quickly at the edges compared to the rest of the figurine. Similar to the vest, Jin's nose looks as if it was sprayed painted on and past the outline edges of his nose. Overall, I'm hoping it was just a special case with my figurines since I wasn't lucky enough to get a perfect condition one. Of course this traces back to when they were manufactured from the warehouses. Although these figurines aren't exactly the cuddle type compared to the sold out plushies that can reach hundreds nowadays (I've seen Taehyung's and Kook's dolls reach about almost $700 before), I think they're a nice piece to add to your BTS collection.
This 1st wave of stationery and figurines were a nice addition to add to the previously released Hip Hop Monster goods (the plushies and Muster wappens). The prices are pretty decent in my opinion and weren't overpriced as I originally predicted before the official announcements of pre-orders. I'm quite looking forward to what Bighit will put out for this line next. Hopefully it will be a new design and theme for the plushies...and even if that is the case, I have a feeling they will go as quickly as the 1st wave did. /prepares wallet and patiently waits. When it comes to merchandise from BTS, once something is sold out, there's a very slim chance that Bighit will do a re-release for them although there have been instances where they have. The sold out NOW BTS in Thailand photobook got a second printing around September of 2014, though not many fans were aware of that. I began collecting BTS's merch at around this time so I was able to get my hands on a copy (with the exception of the pre-order limited edition photocards) for a good price of about $42 dollars. Nowadays those sellers who will put their own copy out for sell usually has them listed for a high pricing. You cannot find one under $50. Anyhow, thank you for reading my post and making it this far! See you in my next one! (^-:
-H
