The television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer created legions of fans and tons of collectibles. The show, which aired from March 1997 through May 2003, was one of the most original series ever created. The premise of a strong but vulnerable teen aged girl as the lead in a series was, at that time, daring. Time and time again the creator, Joss Whedon showed that he was not following typical TV conventions. Main characters were killed; the show’s universe was turned on its head more than once (my personal favorite example is Superstar) and late in the game, Buffy suddenly gets a little sister.

All that creativity spilled out into collectible action figures, comics and cartoons. The graphic novels are great. Many are written by Buffy writers like Jane Espenson and the great Buffy novelist Christopher Golden. The combination of excellent writing and Dark Horse’s wonderful artists has produced some of the most popular comics yet. Buffy comics are great and I am enjoying Season Eight (also published by Dark Horse) but, I want to focus on the Buffy action figures.

Over the course of seven seasons, BtVS kept its core cast — called the Scooby Gang by the characters themselves. This core group was memorialized in action figures many times over. Each of the four main actors has a handful of action figures that capture a particular moment in time. For instance, there is an action figure of Giles as a demon from the episode A New Man. There is a lovely action figure of Buffy in her white dress from Season One finale Prophecy Girl.  All the supporting cast of Scoobies are represented with at least one, if not more figures, too. There is an Anya in bunny suit from the Halloween episode Fear Itself. Tara gets a few action figures, including one that is packaged with a Willow doll.

The sheer number of Buffy the Vampire Slayer action figures is astounding. I consider that there are 8 characters who make up the core of the show’s cast. In addition, the show had a strong stable of returning characters like the slayer Faith, plus characters whose role changed over time — Spike is a perfect example of this.

You could spend a lot of time and more importantly, money trying to collect every Buffy action figure. As with any hobby, you have to set limits on how much you buy and how much you spend. Some of the figures have become quite collectible and so they may be outside of your price range. As a way to continue to enjoy the show’s universe, I can’t think of a better way than in collecting action figures.

The manga One Piece has sold more copies than any other manga. As of 2009, one hundred seventy six million copies were sold worldwide. An amusement park is scheduled to open its door in March 2010 on this series that has over fifty six manga volumes and four hundred anime episodes.

Monkey D. Luffy is the main character in One Piece and it is his life’s goal to find the One Piece. The amazing treasure was placed somewhere in the world by Gol D. Roger (also referred to as Gold Roger). The treasure is rumored to be on the huge sea called the Grand Line, which splits the two oceans that make up most of the world. By running perpendicular to these oceans, the Grand Line creates four smaller seas called the North Blue, East Blue, South Blue, and West Blue.

Monkey D. Luffy happens to have supernatural abilities because he ate something called a Devil Fruit. This fruit, called the Gomu Gomu No Mi, allows him to maneuver his body as if it is made out of rubber. These super powers are needed the most when he’s battling the enemies encountered on his journey – primarily bad pirates and the marines. The marines are spearheaded by the World Government, which is a corrupt organization that wants to end the golden age of pirates.

This manga is a fun read for anyone in any language, but it can be particularly fun to try in Japanese because it has simple language and funny dialogue.  It can provide a fun glimpse into one aspect of Japanese culture.  In fact, manga in Japan is actually enjoyed by more than just children in young adults.  There are some that address very serious issues such as religion and politics.  However, One Piece is great fun and might even inspire you to change your desktop background to One Piece wallpaper.

With enough creativity and magical performance knowledge, one is able to make the illusion of vanishing something under certain conditions. There are many different principle used in doing vanish kinds of magic tricks. Let’s discuss an important one now.

The two most common yet powerful magic the gathering effects are appearance and vanish. They are the two faces of the same coin, in the sense that the reverse of one can be used as the other one. The main difference that prevents the direct application of the reverse of a principle is the factor of anticipation. For vanish, the object to be vanished exists from the spectators’ perspective, and therefore they are anticipating any move to be executed on it. This adds difficulty to vanish tricks than production tricks.

The use of misdirection can help magicians to handle the difficulties met in vanishing an object. If the audience focuses on something else rather than the real object itself, the magician will have the required opportunity to execute his moves. The use of a form of the object does the trick. For instance if a glass is to be vanished, a form of it can be a ring form of the same diameter of the glass hidden inside a covering handkerchief. That way when the ring is held, it is perceived that the glass is held.

One way to achieve the vanish can be similar to the following. First, the magician covers the glass with the gimmicked handkerchief. Then, the ring form is position on the rim of the glass. His left hand holds the ring while the right hand clips the stem with the curled second and third fingers. This is all under cover of the handkerchief.

The ring is placed on a frame to stand and appear to be the standing glass. Now the right hand opens the fingers and let the glass be hung upside down between the fingers.

When the magician wants to present the vanish effect, he takes the illusionary glass which in fact is nothing more than a handkerchief and a ring with his left hand. At this moment, his body is turned to the left a little bit to provide the necessary cover for the right hand to dispose the real glass inside the secret pocket between the coat and the vest. Immediately, the right hand come up and takes the corner of the handkerchief. It is shook and the glass vanishes into thin air apparently.

It is taught that magicians should never notify the spectators about the magic effect he is going to perform, because the spectators will be looking for any signs of movement that is possibly involved in the effect and therefore any tells would ruin that trick. But by misdirection, we can direct their attention to someplace else so that the real work is not seen.