Yesterday I had multiple people ask me to post this, and their comment has 552 likes at the time of me writing this, so I have spent the last day and a half editing, and adding information so it's up to standard. Overall, it has taken me close to a week to make. It probably isn't perfect, but I will edit it if I notice any mistakes. I hope you enjoy ❤
I would like to start this off by saying that this is an incredibly long write-up. This case spans 54 years, and this write-up is over 8650 words long, and is in fact so long that it exceeded the character limit, forcing me to make 2 parts. u/that1guywiththehat has already covered this case, and their write-up is much shorter. I will link it here, and you can check it out if you'd like. They did a fantastic job. 😊
https://www.reddit.com/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/g3wqcc/after_18yearold_annette_craver_vail_vanishes/
Secondly, this write-up borrows EXTENSIVELY from "Gone," a 35,500 word book about the life and crimes of Felix Vail. It contains information that you simply cannot find anywhere else, and I'd estimate that around 80% of this write-up uses it's information. While it's extremely long, being over 4 times the length of this write-up, it is well worth the read. I will also link it here so you can check it out if you'd like.
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/felixvailgone/2016/12/29/felix-vail-gone-one-wife-dead-two-other-missing-jerry-mitchell/95895894/
Now with that out of the way...

PART 1:

MARY HORTON:

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Born on the 16th of February 1940 to Floyd and Lillie Horton, Mary was popular, beautiful, and well liked. She became homecoming queen at Eunice High School and wrote for the school newspaper. After graduating she began attending McNeese State University where she was so popular that all 5 sororities invited her to join. She eventually chose Chi Omega.
https://www.clarionledger.com/gcdn/-mm-/d313713be82928fb5c54a52348e9f0b6fbe9ca88/c=0-232-3288-4617/local/-/media/2016/12/27/JacksonMS/JacksonMS/636184665129485321-mary-horton-0001.jpg?width=300&height=401&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp(Mary Horton from 1957, as Eunice High School homecoming queen.)
A FATEFUL ENCOUNTER
In 1960 she began dating William Felix Vail Sr, who goes by Felix. He was 6’, slender and in the words of another sorority girl “looked like he’d been touched by heaven.” In her diaries and messages to friends, Mary spoke of being happy and excited. However, not everything was sunshine and rainbows for the young couple.
On June 20th, 1960, Mary confided in a friend “I really do love Felix, but I don’t think that I like him anymore. He really is sweet, but we don’t see eye to eye on things.” She requested that a friend set her up on a date with another man in the hopes that Felix would leave her.
In response to this date, he came to Mary saying he suffered from a disease. She asked what disease he had. He meant Mary.
The 2 had a conversation that Mary described as ‘Felix doing all the talking, and her just listening.’ He told her that he had changed, and she said that she had too.
The 2 began dating again, but Mary continued to see other people. She attended a house party with Kelley McFarland, who afterwards heard that Vail was so angry he ‘wanted to kill him.’ McFarland tracked him down, eventually meeting him in dark woods. The 2 exchanged no blows, and they went their separate ways.
After this incident, Mary described herself as “miserable” and Felix as “jealous”, although she reiterated her love for him. There was reportedly an incident at a pool party where Felix “walked up to Mary and just slapped the heck out of her,” according to Mary’s high school boyfriend Leonard Matt.
Despite everything, Mary continued to defend him, calling him a “wonderful person.”
THE MARRIAGE
On July 1, 1961, in Eunice, Louisiana, Mary Horton and Felix Vail got married.
https://www.clarionledger.com/gcdn/-mm-/3a212b032aef874dfc60297c45f3a63946f5aeee/c=0-304-1765-2658/local/-/media/2016/12/28/JacksonMS/JacksonMS/636185193505145184-1022maryhorton003.JPG?width=300&height=401&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp(Mary Horton in her wedding dress, July 1st, 1961.)
In the fall of that year, Mary began her job as a second-grade teacher at Moss Bluff Elementary School. That December, she found out she was pregnant. Another teacher, Myrtis Quinilty said Felix didn’t want a child.
Her sister-in-law, Sue Jordan, told Mary the only reason Vail believed she wanted to get married was to have a baby, and not because of him. Mary blamed herself, saying “I can see, looking back, from many things I said how they could have been misunderstood.” Mary insisted that the couple were happy but did comment on how unattractive she felt while pregnant, a sentiment that Felix shared.
On their anniversary, Mary gave birth to William Felix Vail Jr, who they called Bill.
https://www.clarionledger.com/gcdn/-mm-/c701d4cdc0e5ff127e79b575a1c137adfa57d585/c=0-0-180-240/local/-/media/2016/12/28/JacksonMS/JacksonMS/636185195986996911-TCLBrd-08-11-2016-ClarionLedger-1-A001-2016-08-10-IMG-636047953682196834-M-1-1-G0FAJ00I-L860703094-IMG-636047953682196834-M-1-1-G0FAJ00I.jpg?width=180&height=240&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp (Mary holding Bill in 1962)
Within a month, Mary suspected that she may be pregnant again. At this time, strange things began to happen in the couple’s apartment. One morning, the couple awoke to find their front door had been removed from its hinges. Another time, they found the front door of their apartment wide open. Nothing was stolen.
Mary began receiving threatening calls. The couple concluded that whoever was calling must be watching them because the caller only ever did it when Felix wasn’t home.
Mary spoke with her mother about divorcing Felix. Her mother, a devout Catholic, urged her daughter to stay and work things out. It would be a fatal mistake.
MARY'S DEATH
On October 28th, 1962, at 7:30pm, Felix Vail drove up to Shell Beach saying that his wife had fallen in the water of the Calcasieu River while they were running trot lines. It took 2 days to find her body, close to where Vail had said she disappeared.
Her funeral was held on October 31st. Vail never paid a cent for it.
On November 4th deputies arrested Vail at work, hauling him to jail and questioning him. He refused to take a lie detector test. The coroner ruled Mary’s death an “accidental drowning,” a sentiment not shared by the officers who found her body, or the community at large. Days later, Vail was released without charge, as the D.A declined to prosecute.
Months later, he picked up his son, Bill, from the Louisiana home of his late wife’s aunt and headed for Mississippi. According to Bill years later, Vail told him that he and Mary were out fishing, that a boat had come by and caused a big wave and knocked her out of the boat. Mary didn’t know how to swim, had no life jacket (despite being afraid of water) and so immediately sank and drowned. He said he had almost died trying to rescue her.
I will go further in depth into Mary’s death further down this write-up when I go through the investigation that followed, decades later. There are more details that I will cover there.
ROBIN SINCLAIR:
In this section I will cover his relationship with a girlfriend between the murders of Mary Horton and Sharon Hensley. Vail was a full-time scumbag and I want to illustrate that, as well as show some of the other lives he’s impacted, and other people he’s hurt. I will be covering multiple instances like this one. If you only want to read about the 3 murder victims, feel free to scroll down, I have them clearly marked for convenience.
AN 11 YEAR AGE GAP AND A DEAD-BEAT DAD
In 1967, Vail met a 17-year-old Robin Sinclair at a bus stop in San Diego. (Vail would have been 28 at this time. Large age gaps will be a theme in this write up.) She was spending the summer there with her sister, and the 2 began dating. When summer break ended, she left without him, returning home to San Francisco.
In October of 1968 while attending an Iron Butterflies concert, Vail appeared again. Sinclair took it as a sign that the 2 belonged together. He had his young son Bill, and the 3 bounced from place to place together. Sinclair would later describe how Bill was poorly looked after, neglected and that Vail would even give the young boy drugs. Bill would later recount his father giving him LSD as a child.
While watching over another couple’s home during the Christmas holidays, she learned she was pregnant and shared the news with Vail. He said, “Well, I don’t think you’re emotionally stable enough to handle the pregnancy.” The next morning, Vail and his young son had vanished. A friend told Sinclair that he went back to Mississippi, that it was time for his son to go to school and that he didn’t want to be with her.
Heartbroken, Sinclair would move in with her parents. In August of 1969 she gave birth to her daughter, who she named Simone. She wrote Vail an angry letter, and 2 months later he showed up on her doorstep. She told him to leave, and that she never wanted to see him again. She never did.

SHARON HENSLEY:

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Sharon Hensley was born on December 20th, 1948. Growing up in the state capital of Bismarck, North Dakota, she dated football players and belonged to the high school’s 'Demonettes', an award-winning dance team founded by a former Rockette.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT-drYY1YZjqadja6gpHI_j8-zHNTiww7XDLwZ3pq-m&s
(A photo of Sharon Hensley.)
She graduated in 1966, and attended Bismarck Junior College, where she took classes in dance and acting, performing in a play with her older brother, Frank.
In 1967, aged 19, Sharon discovered she was pregnant. Wanting to escape her hometown, she followed her brother Frank and other classmates to San Francisco. After arriving, she stayed in a home for single mothers, where she gave birth to a girl she named “Cherry” after the popular Neil Diamond song. She told friends she wanted to keep the child but was unable to. Two years after leaving for California, Sharon was in jail and her mother, Peggy, headed there with a $5,000 cashier’s check to bail her out. When she returned, Sharon wasn’t with her.
“She said she had lost her daughter,” her younger brother Brian would later say. “She cried almost every night. She was never the same after that.”
MEETING VAIL
While house-sitting in a high-rise apartment, Vail would meet his future girlfriend, Sharon. She was 20, and attractive, having even modeled in her teens. They became friends, and then started a relationship despite the 10-year age gap.
While hitchhiking across California, Vail would confess to Hensley that he had killed Mary, something his son Bill overheard. Because of this, Bill would later go to the police to report his own father for murder. The police at first didn’t believe Bill, but after camping out on the front steps, one detective listened. He told the detective that he was hungry, tired of using the drugs his father gave him, that he wanted to go back to school, live like other kids, and that he had overheard his father admit to killing his mother.
At a beach along the Merced River, police found his father and Hensley, carrying a bag of LSD capsules. Police charged the couple with LSD possession and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Vail received a six-month jail sentence, plus three years’ probation, after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of LSD possession.
California police shared their information with Louisiana authorities. Once again, the district attorney in Lake Charles once again passed on prosecuting Vail for murder. Another fatal mistake.
Bill returned to Mississippi to live with his grandparents, who then gained full custody. On January 23rd, 1971, Vail and Sharon showed up in the driveway. Bill thought Vail was there to kill him, and his grandmother had to reassure him that he was safe.
The father and son eventually sat down and had a talk. Vail told Bill that he didn’t blame him for the time he spent in prison, but instead blamed Sharon, which the young boy found strange because “she had nothing to do with it.”
The family wondered how the couple could even legally be in Mississippi if they were supposed to be on probation in California. They couldn’t. After a visit from the Sheriff, the 2 were smuggled out of town and given enough money to get back to the West Coast.
In the Summer of 1972, the couple appeared unannounced at Sharon’s childhood home in Bismarck. The more the family saw of the couple, the more horrified they became. Sharon wore a mini skirt with no panties and had armpit hair and leg hair "like a man." She had been losing weight and losing clumps of hair.
Her younger brother Brian said it felt like his sister had been brainwashed. If someone asked her a question, “either Felix would answer the question for her, or she would look at Felix while she was giving the answer.”
The couple left then North Dakota and traveled to Mississippi, where they stayed with Vail’s family. On the dairy farm the family owned, they helped paint the home. The couple also sunbathed in the nude, drawing the ire of neighbors.
Peggy Hensley received a telephone call from Sharon, who said she and Vail were heading to New Orleans and then to Miami to make pornographic films. She believed it was a cry for help as “what daughter tells her mother she’s going to do a porno?” Sharon’s parents wanted to travel down to get their daughter back but couldn’t. (The 2 did end up shooting pornographic scenes together, but I won’t get into any of that.)
In early 1973, Sharon called and talked of traveling to South America with Vail, where they would eat natural foods and write a book. It was the last conversation the family would ever have with her. Soon after, she would send her final letter. It contained a photo of her holding a pen, captioned “making travel notes.” It was the last picture ever taken of Sharon Hensley.
https://www.clarionledger.com/gcdn/-mm-/94195697544ea2e63b0b95e33a6de88a8b4f1e2b/c=0-50-399-276/local/-/media/2016/12/28/JacksonMS/JacksonMS/636185487179588030-Sharon-Hensley.jpg?width=399&height=226&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp(The last photo ever taken of Sharon.)
THE DISAPPEARANCE
In March of 1974, Peggy received a letter from Vail, claiming he was in West Florida. He wrote that he last saw Sharon about a year before in Key West, with an Australian couple that was traveling around the world. All he recalled was the first names of the couple (John and Vanessa), who were talking with Sharon about “island hopping around South America, the West Indies, --- Hawaii for a while, maybe a couple of years in the Philippines, then India, Egypt and the Mediterranean islands and coasts. I don’t know which of these (if any) they decided on or in what order.” Peggy didn't believe a word of it.
In the fall of 1975, Vail’s mother wrote to the Hensley family, saying that her son was surprised the family hadn’t heard from Sharon during that time. Interestingly, Vail told his mother the names of the couple that Sharon left with were Frank and Sally, different names than he had given a year earlier. Vail explained to his mother that before Sharon left, she had burned all her identification cards, got new IDs, and declared that she would become a completely different person.
Bill recalled his father mentioning Sharon. “He said she would never bother anyone ever again.” The words upset Bill, who believed his father had just confessed to another murder. “There was not a soul I could tell about it because I had had my experience in court when I was 8, no one would believe me. It would be my word against his, and no one would believe a 13-year-old.”
​
SHARON CAMPBELL:
I want to talk about this relationship because of the egregious age difference. For reference, Campbell is only 4 years older than Vail’s son.
While riding a bus to north Mississippi in 1975, Vail sat next to 17-year-old Sharon Campbell. Despite being literally twice her age, he commented on how fit she looked, saying "he needed someone like her to keep him fit." In spite of this, she felt flattered and shared her telephone number with him. Not long after she got home, Vail appeared in a yellow Volkswagen bug.
Vail said he wanted Campbell to travel with him, and she told him the only way her parents would allow it was if they got married.
On July 24, 1975, they did, honeymooning in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
In court years later, she would tell prosecutors that they never consummated the marriage because “he was unable to obtain an erection.” (This isn’t relevant, I just wanted to include it out of spite because fuck this guy.)
Several weeks later, she went with Vail to visit his relatives in Louisiana. There, she said a niece told her, “You probably need to know that he killed his first wife --- they arrested him. We all believed that he did it, he drowned her out of a boat.”
Campbell didn't believe them, telling herself that he would be in prison if he was a murderer. But as the months passed by, she concluded that he “had no value in the female gender,” and that “he hated women.”
She later traveled with Vail to his parents’ home in Montpelier. While there, he was outdoors working on the Volkswagen and Campbell walked closer without him noticing. He opened a compartment, and she said she saw “sinister, surgical looking saws of all shapes and sizes in a neat formation.” To her, the sight screamed evil. “It scared me. I said, ‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’” She left, annulled the marriage, and never looked back. It was likely the best decision she ever made.
After the divorce he would marry a woman named Carolyn in 1977. The relationship would end after he cheated on her with a woman named Alexandra Christianson during a double date. When Carolyn called Vail’s mother and asked her if the behavior surprised her, she simply replied “no.”
After being served the divorce papers, Vail smashed his car into her MGB Sports Car. A month later he would call her saying “I love you.” She did not reciprocate. She would later describe Vail as “mentally deranged.”
​
ALEXANDRA CHRISTIANSON:
Alexandra is the woman Vail cheated on Carolyn with. She eventually got married to him in Mexico after he officially divorced Carolyn. Not long after their marriage, she heard that Vail was cheating on her.
After a motorcycle accident, he came to rest up at her condo in Costa Mesa, where she confronted him about the cheating. He reportedly got agitated and said, “you know my first wife died.” When she replied saying he’d told her she drowned, Vail shot back “I could have saved her, but I chose not to.”
After telling him to leave, she went to have a shower. While in the shower, Vail attacked her, wrapping his hands around her neck. Hearing her screams, Alexandra’s young brother came in, grabbing Vail and forcing him to the ground. Vail then left.
Soon after this, she found out she was pregnant. The child was still-born, and Alexandra was heart-broken. She would later lead important investigators to witnesses that were used in Vail's eventual trial.
In part 2, I will cover Vail's final victim Annette Craver, and the lengths her mother went to to finally secure justice.
Here is Part 2:
MY SOURCES:
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/8284?nav
https://charleyproject.org/case/annette-michelle-craver-vail
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/felixvailgone/2016/12/29/felix-vail-gone-one-wife-dead-two-other-missing-jerry-mitchell/95895894/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5796622/mary-elizabeth-vail
https://charleyproject.org/case/sharon-hensley
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/20525?nav

https://imgur.com/a/aNN3xLG
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And that handwriting - it’s just glorious!!! It’s somehow both modern & vintage too?!?? Just gorgeous! Thank you for sharing your fun prompt creativity with me. =) u/1398_days Thank you for the pretty pastel thank you card!!! It was my absolute pleasure to think of you on your birthday & I’m so touched it cheered you up! Your kind thank you card lifted my spirits & made me feel super happy! It’s so bright & colorful - just my fave color palette! I sure hope you’ve been having cheerful days since your birthday & that you will remind me when it’s your big day next year for more birthday greetings!! =) u/somedrawer Thanks for the adorable doggie Easter card! Such fun stamps & washi decorations on the card - the baked confectionaries washi is sooo delicious! Love the positive affirmation you wrote: “I am capable of creating positive change in the world.” So uplifting! Here’s one for you: “I am a creator. I create my reality.” u/its_top_secret x 2 Thank you for the sweet Seigensha postcard! And I love your spirit - you wanting to dance no matter what is so inspiring! I also love your willingness to be brave & embellish when no one is watching hahaha! Thank you for the vintage-y shrine postcard with your beautiful handwriting! Love how you would have searched for legendary figures if you had the chance to time travel. =) Wishing you a happy future & past too if you dare to explore haha! u/aepeyc Thank you for the sweet Saint Patrick’s Day greetings with the pretty feather! Wishing you lots of luck not just on the 17th of each year, but each day as well. :) u/missnettiemoore Thank you so much for this GORGEOUS cartoon Saint Patrick’s Day card!!! The sweet smiling critters are so charming!!! I also love the fun fact you wrote: “The odds in finding a 4-leaf clover are about 1 in 10,000.” I had no idea - that’s so mindblowing!!! Thank you for brightening my day with your sweet card. Wishing you a breezy, beautiful spring & that you chance across those rare 4 leaf clovers for lots of luck! =) u/FollowingTheBeat You had me at the exquisite envelope decorated with your precious handmade cherry blossom tree! So pretty. I’m terrible at drawing trees so I’m especially excited by your talent. But that was just the appetizer. I’m in love with this gorgeous pink-themed floral feast of a card!!! Thank you! This card instantly makes me happy with all the bright colors & the pretty sticker you used to decorate it. This card is soooo beautiful, & so are you for including such sweet spring wishes for so many lovely things, including “beauty”! What an awesome wish. Wishing you a spring full of the same love & beautiful birds that serenade you & make you smile! u/RayneKitten Thank you so much for the beautiful postcard to color - it’ll be a joy! I also love the quote. I appreciate your kindness! Wishing you lots of masterpieces! u/PM_me_oak_trees Thank you for the *hilarious* April Fool’s Day card - the teaching English quip is priceless hahaha!!! I also love the awesome motivational quotes & funny jokes you wrote. OMG “I was going to write a time-travel joke, but you did not like it” - rahahahahahahaha! I’m so stealing that one! I really appreciated your creativity in sending “junk mail” - what a neato thing to do! Hope you had a beautiful April Fool’s Day - thanks for making mine special! u/FancyBeadedPlacemat Thank you so much for the potato postcard! I was laughing when I received it because I only tagged potato pals & didn’t request one since merely *looking* at potatoes makes me gain weight LOL! But I was so glad you sent it to me because I had no idea about the fun history fact!!! That’s so cool that Marie Antoinette would wear potato blossoms in her hair!!! So thank you for sharing that awesome historical gem with me!!! u/wabisabi_sf Thank you so much for this perfect postcard TREAT of Julia Child along with the fun facts about her life! It’s just a postcard dream as far as postcards go. I’m nuts for fun illustrations so this is a real treasure. I also love the fun vintage stamps you used. Thanks so much for thinking of me with your wonderful offer & for making me giddy by picking me to receive this scrumptious postcard!! =) u/orangewolpertinger x 2 Thank you for the absolutely precious homemade cards!!!! The cuuuute pink kawaii candy themed card just made me melt!!! I love the combo of black & pink colors along with the pink & red themed scrapbook paper! The fox Saint Patrick’s Day card is soooo adorable too! Love the fun stickers you used to decorate the card! I also love & appreciate the kind stamps you included. You’re also so cute to take that Squishmallow personality quiz hahaha! So you’re Hans the Hedgehog? Although I agree that Hans is cute, he doesn’t hold up a cute candle compared to you & your endless card love!!! Thank you so much for these sweet treats!!! Wishing you lots of love & joy! u/Bowies-solid-speech x 2 I’m so happy I found you, my fabulous obituary mystery sender!!!! I even tried looking for you with a search for “obituary” on Reddit but didn’t find any relevant hits…Reddit is so goofy. I loved your creative, thoughtful obituary so much! You have such a fun brain - thank you for brightening my day with the fake obit hahaha! Your creativity is so very charming!!! I also admired how eager you were to write in depth! I also LOVE the adorable postcard of the critter looking at himself in the mirror. Thank you! The pastel colors & illustration are awesome! I was drawn to it because of one of my favorite Kabir quotes: “But if a mirror ever makes you sad, you should know that it does not know you.” Wishing you lots of joy as you check your beautiful self out in the mirror!! u/Slavkan12 THANK you so much for this gorgeous handmade “Dream Space” postcard that’s so bright & bouncy with the gorgeous array of blooming plants!!! It’s so pretty & makes me ache to have my own “Dream Space”!!! I love how you upcycled the calendar to create it. So cool & creative. But the front of the card isn’t where the magic ends - WOW!! I was **blown away** by your amazing illustration inside the card with the stunning self-portrait & the pretty pink & green plant!!! Your art skills are sublime! I love all the colors you used (such pretty pink hair & I love the color of your shirt). I wish so much I could draw like you but am grateful that even though I can’t, I’m a lucky recipient of this super cool gift!!!! I also love all the festive stickers you included & how you decorated the envelope with the unique bird/owl stickers. =) Thank you so much for this magnificent, magical mail! Wishing you lots of success in your art & beyond, kind friend! u/jules_abroad How did you do it? Never before your gorgeous card would I have ever thought I would have called a card with toilet paper & poop on it “gorgeous”. But that’s what you did with your INSANE TALENT & ADORABLE poop & tp handmade wacky wonderful card!!! I’m honestly in awe even though poop & tp usually make me wanna throw up! I LOVE IT SO SO MUCH hahaha! Thank you for brightening my day with poop of all things! I’m including a highlighted picture of it with the link above. ;) I wish I could draw & watercolor like you do…this is so going in a frame in my future dream home bathroom!! =) Wishing you the softest, squishiest, most cloud-like tp ever, sweet friend!

A thread for new collectors to ask basic questions of the community.
Frequently Asked Questions below!
A longer version of the subreddit rules is here.
For questions specifically concerning bootlegs or vendor legitimacy, please ask in the Bootleg Megathread.
NSFW & Spoiler Guidelines

• For Self Posts: include a bolded NSFW note next to links in that post.
• For Links to sites/images: If the figure is NSFW, or the website has any NSFW content (including ads) be sure to tag your post NSFW and use the appropriate link flair.

Bootlegs
Any collection posts containing bootlegs, comments advocating buying bootlegs, or links to sites selling bootlegs, recasts, or unlicensed merchandise will be removed.
People often ask about the legitimacy and/or safety of a number of websites which sell large resin statues. The more commonly-asked of those deal primarily in resins from studios which do not have a license from the Japanese IP holders to produce merchandise. Therefore links to those sites are not permitted here. Another sign is if MyFigureCollection doesn't list the either the statue, its manufacturer, or the shop it's being sold on.
MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops

Retailers:
AmiAmi HobbySearch Mandarake (sells rare figures) Good Smile Company Online Shop (often has exclusives) Good Smile Company US shop Crunchyroll Shop Hobby Link Japan (aka HLJ) Solaris Japan (MFC partner) BigBadToyStore (MFC partner, US retailer) Big in Japan (also has proxy service) Tokyo Otaku Mode Right Stuf FigureHaven Archonia (EU) Yorokonde (EU) Figuya (EU) Dekai Anime (UK) Gamersheek (UK) Jungle
List of retailers on MFC
/AnimeFigures' List of Retailers
Community Guide to Shopping in Japan

Blogs/News:

Nekomagic (News/Previews) NyaaFigurines (Reviews/Releases) Kahotan's Blog (News/Reviews) Figma Blog (JP)

Buying & Shipping

1. What’s the best place to buy my anime figures from?
That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.

• Unregistered SAL: Sometimes referred to as uSAL, is usually the cheapest method. It does not come with any tracking or insurance. Usually takes up 2-4 weeks for delivery.
• Registered SAL: Sometimes referred to as rSAL, is insured for the declared value up to 6,000 yen. It comes with a tracking number and usually takes 2-4 weeks for delivery.
• EMS: This method of shipping is much faster than either SAL options, usually arriving within a week of shipment. EMS shipments are insured for the declared value up to 2,000,000 yen.
• Airmail
• E-packet
• Surface: Shops don't offer this very often. It's an actual cargo ship and slow as a result.
  
• DHL: Becoming more available as an alternative to EMS on AmiAmi and other sites. Can be less expensive than EMS and of comparable speed, but may be more reliant on the specific geographical area being shipped to. The price is also determined by the size of the box. Offers their own tracking.
  

3. I placed two+ orders for figures at different times. Will my items be shipped together, or will I have to pay shipping twice?
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:

• Amiami: You can combine orders here, as long as the orders ship in the same month. It doesn’t matter if the item is new or preowned. Any preorders that are set for that month can also be combined with other orders for that month. However, be aware that if the preorder gets delayed, Amiami will remove that item from that month’s shipment and place it on a new order. To combine orders on Amiami, use the “Combine Orders” feature under “My Account”.
  
• Hobby Search: Hobby Search will let you combine orders that release in the same month, but you cannot combine in stock items with preorders. If you want to combine multiple preorders, or multiple in stock items, you can do so using the “Order Recombination” feature on your account page.
  
• HobbyLink Japan: At HLJ, you have the option to send paid orders to their “Private Warehouse”, where you can store them for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to ship the items, you simply select which items to ship and HLJ will combine them into one shipment for you. To use this, just select the “Private Warehouse” option as shipping when you order.
  

If you’re unsure about whether or not a shop we haven’t listed will combine your orders, please refer to their individual FAQs.
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:

• Big in Japan (Japanese store)
• Tokyo Otaku Mode
• Anime Island
• Crunchyroll

Keep in mind that overseas stores will likely get the figure a few months after Japanese ones, so pay attention to the release date stated on the website you are buying from so as to avoid that confusion.
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Australia: 10% GST is now assessed up front.
• Canada: Minimum declared value for charges is around CAD$20 for regular shipments, and CAD$60 for gifts (gifting something only seems to lower the declared value by about CAD$40, not deplete it completely). When using Amiami, try their Small Air Packet option. It comes with tracking, gets there in about the same time as EMS, and is better at avoiding customs.
• European Union: As of 1st July 2021, VAT has to be paid on all goods imported from outside of the EU. Retailers are supposed charge VAT for purchases under €150, however many Japanese retailers currently do not, so VAT will be charged when your order arrives in the EU. Orders that are >€150, VAT and duty will be charged by your local customs.
• UK: As of 1st January 2021, VAT is to be charged by retailers for orders <£135. However, customs isn't currently charging VAT on parcels valued at <£135, even if the VAT hasn't been paid. Goods >£135 will have their VAT and duty calculated and charged by customs.
• Mexico: Minimum declared value for customs fees is USD$300 for shipments by post, and USD$50 for shipments by courier.
• United States: A shipment has to have a declared value of USD$2,000 before customs starts hitting you with fees, so you most likely won’t have to worry about them at all.

6. The figure I want is an exclusive, how do I go about ordering one outside of Japan?
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:

• Big in Japan
• Tenso

Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:

• Big in Japan (Won’t proxy for Yahoo Auctions)
• From Japan

Again, be sure you thoroughly read through each sites proxy instructions.
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.

Displaying Your Figures

12. What display cases do you recommend?
If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:

• Detolf *
• Klingsbo
• Billy (Often used with Morliden doors and glass shelves.)

*If you decided on a Detolf, you might find that there is a lot of wasted space. Here are a few tutorials on raising the shelves or and adding extra ones in.

• Using metal clips
• Using acrylic supports and PVC pipe

If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:

• Plastic picture cubes
• Card Deck Boxes
• If you’re feeling adventurous, try making your own!

Check your local hobby store for the first 2 options, or your local hardware store if you want to make your own.
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:

• Keeping it sealed can actually damage your figure. PVC figures usually have something called plasticizer in them, and that plasticizer needs to be able to breath. If a PVC figure isn’t exposed to oxygen, after a period of time the plasticizer starts to break down and form a sticky substance on the surface of the figure. Simply opening your figures and taking them out of the box prevents this from happening. If you happen to find plasticizer goo on one of your figures, Kahotan has a handy guide for dealing with it.
• Unlike some other figure markets, keeping an anime figure sealed won’t raise its value by a whole lot. In fact, because of the plasticizer problem mentioned above, your figure could actually be in better condition if you open it versus keeping it sealed.

Finding the Right Figure(s) for You

16. What are "scales" and "prizes"? What is the difference between them?
Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.

• "Prizes" are generally more simply produced figures which are intended to be given as prizes for playing arcade games. They are inexpensive and lack the detail of scale figures, though some prize figure lines have standouts which may approach lower-end scales in quality. That is uncommon and often depends on the individual figure.
• "Scales" are called such because they are nominally designed to be proportional to the dimensions of the character which they are based on. They are generally of much better manufacture and materials than prize figures, allowing for more detail in painting, accessories, or complex poses.
• "Trading" figures appear in gashapon machines or as blind boxes on shop counters, often as sets which include multiple characters. As suggested by the class name, the randomness encourages trading. They are usually very inexpensively-produced, though as with prizes, some series are better than others.
• "Non-scale" encompasses a variety of other categories. It is often used to describe poseable figure lines such as figma and Nendoroids.

In recent years producers such as Good Smile Company attempted to further bridge the gap between prize quality and scales by introducing figure lines which are intended to be moderately-priced while retaining a higher level of detail than the typical prize figure, to varying levels of success.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:

• Alter
• Max Factory
• Good Smile Company
• Kotobukiya (usually hit or miss for people. Use your best judgement based off of the prototype)
• Flare
• Stronger

18. I really love “series X / character X”- how can I check if any figures were ever made for it?
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.

Keeping Up with New Announcements

20. How can I keep up with figure news (announcements, updates, etc.)?
Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:

• Neko Magic
• Alter’s Blog (In Japanese)
• Kahotan’s Blog (Only GSC and their sister companies)

Many figure companies are active on Twitter, so following them there is recommended for quicker news.
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.

If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.

Most companies have one or more Twitter accounts. Some examples: Good Smile Company sales, Good Smile's USA branch, Max Factory, AmiAmi Hobby News.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.

I’m a 30 year old male. Probably pushing 420 pounds now. I recently got hired at a new job. I’ve been out of work for months. Nobody would hire me and it’s been a tough time. I’m on feet probably 7 hours a day and getting a lot more movement in. Drinking a whole lot more water. Eating a lot better, well most days. Weight doesn’t seem to coming off as fast as I’d like and when I come home I’m beat. My feet, ankles, knees hurt bad. I want do more but I just can’t. I’m in pain at the end of the day. Curious anybody had any help or tips? Be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.

Tw: Csa, basically everything
If I hear “she’s still your mother” one more fucking time I’m going to freaking lose it, My mother knew her boyfriend was sexually abusing and trafficking me and my siblings and she did nothing. Let it go on for years and her final straw was only when He put his hands on her and all of a sudden police were involved. After we were placed into foster care she did just enough to still keep her parents rights without ever getting us back causing us to bounce around from home to home for years until one day she gave up her parental rights and started a new family with a new boyfriend and a new kid. That women has never cared for anyone other than herself. We finally cut contact and she told everyone and now we have extended family and friends reaching us telling us to forgive because “she’s still our mother” “everyone makes mistakes” “it was hard on her as well”. Where do people even get this level of fucking audacity, I’m one millisecond away from just losing it.

I've been writing down my dreams in an app called Dream Catcher. The dream I had last night seems connected to one I had last July.
Now this is probably going to be a lot to read but quite a few of these details are replicated in the more recent dream so I feel that they're worth mentioning.
The dream that I had last July started with me playing a video game on the Wii U (which makes sense as that was my main game system back in middle school) Then eventually it shifted so that I was in the backseat of my parents car playing the same game (the Wii U is not portable but I digress)
I looked up at the windshield and saw a beautiful girl walking by who was remarkably slender in appearance.
My dad was holding up a DS like a phone and said that I have to reach level 36 to be able to talk with this person.
Then I was sitting outside at a bus stop and that girl asked me if I'd heard of this band which both was and wasn't the Beatles (you know how dreams tend to be)
So we talked about that band for a while and at some point I ended up in a room that looks like the basement that I had fallen asleep in in real life. around this time I was staying at my aunt and uncle's house and sleeping in their basement on a couch that had a big window behind it.
The girl was sitting beside me on the couch instead of the bus stop, she was showing me this phone game via a screen on the wall that looked like a projector screen but with nothing projecting it. She said that you can unlock songs by that band by playing through this game.
The game was one of those ones where you raise a little pet animal, in this case it was a cutesy raccoon.
She told me I needed to unlock something for her. (Something in my head was telling me that I needed to unlock her in this game so she could stay with me)
She looked like an average girl my age and was very beautiful and cute
At some point I went to open the blinds above the couch and the girl started to panic and asked "why are you doing that?"
I said "just to make sure you're not imaginary", she looked sad, disappointed, like what I just said confirmed that none of this was going to work out in their favor.
I opened the blinds and there was nothing but bright white light, which didn't look abnormal or anything, I feel like I've kind of seen that before in real life. She said "what if I am imaginary?"
I said "are you?" she kind of ashamedly nodded yes,
I said "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to" "I can still play the game, I can get to your level"
She said "no, don't, it's over now" At this point I was on the couch beside her and she leaned in to give me a hug.
The whole room was fading to white as if it were the end of a flashback in a movie.
Then I found myself walking back into the room, and she was sitting on the other side of the couch where I was and there's a new girl sitting where she used to sit,
my girl didn't want to fully acknowledge me but kind of looked over with a glance that conveyed
"I don't want to talk to you"
Like she was mad at me for what I did.
the other girl was probably aware that something happened between me and the first girl due to her acting similarly, They looked over at each other,
My girl said "just go, you don't belong here" as the dream was fading to white and I could feel myself waking up I said:
"I'm sorry it had to be this way".
So that was just the first dream that I had a while ago, the one that I just had last night went like this:
This dream also started with me playing the Wii U, both times it was a Super Mario game
A lot of the earlier part of the dream is pretty fuzzy but at some point I ended up walking with that same girl through her neighborhood at night, which looks like it was close to my irl neighborhood but was in a spot where it couldn't exist in real life.
She was telling me about the different houses and said that one of them is where the Beastie boys lived
At this point when I was writing down this dream I started to describe the girl, and I happened to describe her as "remarkably slender" just as I did when I wrote down the first dream (without realizing that was how I previously described her)
I said she looked like an average girl my age but was very beautiful.
I can still picture her face.
Within the dream I couldn't remember where I'd met her. She kind of felt like a childhood friend that I'd recently reunited with. Within the dream I was actually intending on asking her how we had met.
At some point I think she realized that it was getting so late that she should go home. (I think that happened before this next part) A portion of the night sky opened up, well I guess it more looked it turned pink as if a movie projector was shining on it, and some character that I could only assume to be the girl's father appeared
I am retroactively picturing her father as the king of all Cosmos from the katamari games.
He said it is time (my child?) to return to the world of toys, a child's room where everything is a toy. (He really hammered in the point that they're all toys) my girl looked at me with eyes that conveyed that her secret was out.
(So it's worth noting that both of these dreams point out that this girl isn't real, because she was explicitly stated to be imaginary in the first one, then she was explicitly stated to be a living toy in the second one) ("living toy" in the Toy Story sense I guess, not like a robot)
We turned and walked towards her house. She explained that every morning she always has to go back to her world in which she's a toy.
When we got to her house it was kind of like one of those houses that used to be a camper and was converted into an actual house.
The girl said "I have to go back now" and walked through the screen door which I guess was some kind of a portal or barrier between the worlds, she literally walked through it without opening it.
I asked her if we could hug through the portal.
We both reached out to hug but I couldn't reach my arms through, but she could, so she hugged me very tightly and then said good bye.
That's the end of the dream.
While I was looking through that app where I have written down my dreams in I even found two other instances of meeting "some girl" in a dream, I hadn't even realized that until reading through them earlier today.
one was just an offhand mention that probably didn't mean anything.
And in the other dream her and I were both young kids, in a play center.
I don't know if it was the same imaginary girl in those two instances but they were worth mentioning nonetheless.
Could anyone figure out what's going on here?
Why do I keep having dreams about this same imaginary girl?
What could this mean / say about me?

she broke up with me in person. telling me she wants to stay friends and that we should keep in touch. we ended on good terms. we dated for a year and we’re literally each others first everything.
february-march: we both broke contact numerous times. we had very very long conversations lasting up until 4am talking about what we’ve been doing and how our lives were going. we both said we love each other but just need space to figure ourselves out. we both cried on the phone numerous times not wanting to leave each other. she would not get back with me because she thought it was impossible for me to change that quickly after the breakup. i thought she was right so i focused on myself. april-may: during this time was the worst period of my life. i found out she’s talking to someone new and has moved on after everything she told me. i did not understand how she could move on so quickly after she told me she wants to work on herself and that we would find our way back to each other, she starts to talk to someone new. i call her and tell that i have to block her on everything. that was end of that. i haven’t talked to her since. after that, i was absolutely heartbroken. i thought i had a chance of getting her back but that hope was crushed. this was one of the worst periods of my life. june: we’re now in june and my life has gotten extraordinary better. i still miss her at times but it’s not that much. i think about her but not as often. i’ve met so many new people and made so many new friends. my life overall has been better, but sometimes when i feel lonely i want to text her. i don’t know why i go from being extremely happy just to being at home wanting to text her. i don’t know if i should and i don’t know if she’s still talking to that guy. i know i shouldn’t text her but i keep thinking about the conversations we had when we broke no contact. i think i’m almost fully moved on and if she doesn’t respond to my text i know i’ll be hurt. i think it’s time that i completely move past it and go on with my life but i’m not sure she was my everything. ive talked to new girls but it’s never the same.

Currently on a backpacking trip, a few days ago I noticed bites (30+) starting to pop up all over my body. I have been staying in many hostels and have no idea when this could have happened. Circumstantially they seem in line with bed bug bites (ie small spots in straight lines and clusters of 3) but I haven’t actually seen any evidence of bugs or eggs after examining my belongings.
I absolutely do not want to bring bed bugs home so I am trying to take all the precaution I can. So far I have:
-immediately quarantined my luggage when I arrived at my latest location so they didn’t make contact with the hotel room, then washed and dried all my clothing on high heat.
-tossed my backpack and bought a new one, also tossed anything unnecessary/easily replaceable
-wiped down plastic with rubbing alcohol
-bagged everything up in garbage bags
Anything else I can do? And out of curiosity, if my bites aren’t chased by bed bugs, what can they be?

So I work at a retirement home, in the kitchen, and our new boss just made it apparent that we are no longer going to be offered meal breaks in order to curb "overtime". What they don't seem to understand is that I'm diabetic, and that I need meals in order to sustain myself properly; otherwise I may have a lot of low blood sugars. Should I contact the building supervisor and tell her my department boss is banning meal breaks?

I have 20cards to trade if are interested https://s.scope.ly/KRSjIL\_udiY
Istanbul flow- feline good
Seoul searching- gangnam neons, dressed in silk
Roma eterna- fun on wheels, L'eleganza
Villa de madrid- football heaven, the classics, canoe for two
Wellington, NZ- sealebrities, nice try, wharf jumping
Parisian love- la vie en clothes, summer picnic
New orleans- the king cake, bayou banquet, river queen, miss marignys, ghostly gator
Beautiful bavaria- Spring feast, poocherhosen, bovine beauty, polka party, volksfest
Vermont orchard- entrepreneurs, snap apple, ripe choice, fat stacks, uncover vermont
Cairo- cairoglyphics, dive in, gotta scoot, a spicy sale, camel cab, cat nap.
Montreal year long- doughlicious, tough crowd, get your toboggann, slap shot, the wheel deal, hundred steps
Marrakesh- kitty kindness, desert dosing, very charming, radiant riad moroccan mint, woven wonders
london calling- on guard, leg it, phone home, london lookout, double decker, a real circus, bigger ben

So this happened about 2 weeks ago the day before my 18th.
I was running my first game as dm with my mates from school my younger brothers and the family friend i go to larp with (names changed for obvious reasons) ash- the shifter gunslinger (17,m) Garn the human bloodhunter (17,m) kilrrs the tiefling rouge sorcerer(17,m) Gerard the human fighter (29,m) mido the elf fighter (12,m) harith the kalashter bard cleric (15,m. 8 years old in game) robin the tortle monk rouge (17,m) suit case "the great" the Goliath wizard and finnaly me the DM (17 at the time now 18, m) The main players that cause all of the stupidity were ronin, Harith, and Garn
The game was set in eberron and started in a tavern. The players started talking to the bar keep then ronin instantly went to persuade the bar keep into giving him free booze (failed) then got suitcase to do it and he rolled a Nat 20, free alcohol for the night for everyone, a bit later harith says he is compatible with elfs. To progress the story I send in the messanger that delivers a letter to the part asking them to go to the capital city of the area to meet someone, kilrrs asked to kill him, I obviously said no, the players wait untill morning to start their journey to the capital in which they have to pass through a town on the way.
On the way to the town the players are jumped by bandits, basic combat starts, then at the end Ronin and Harith ask to take 2 of the bandits as slaves. In new cyre Harrith and ronin try to sell their slaves harrith successeds in selling his slave to a farmer but ronin fails so decides to keep him and named him boba fett (because it was a boba fett lego minifig) so in the level up I made a character sheet for boba.
Garn goes to the blacksmith to sell the armour and weapons the had gotten and the blacksmith offered 10gp under the value (350gp) for the armour and weapons from 7 bandits he and the bar keep argue while ronin messes around in the store with boba fett, on the way out (after being kicked out by the blacksmith) ronin successeds a stealth check and steals a rapier from the store, they give it to kilrrs to sell to the blacksmith who offers 3 gold and they can take it or leave it as he wants to close for the night, kilrrs keeps arguing and not leaving and then attempts an attack fails so the black smith throws molten metal at him.
Suitcase left because he didn't feel like playing and dnd wasn't fir him (it was his first time playing and he hadn't done much)
Not much happens until the capital where they meet steadler the guy who asked for them (steadler is a green half orc) the players and him have a friendly chat he gives them their mission and they are off. The mission was to slay a beast in the seven caves and bring him one of its teeth as proof.
Gerard left to go home because he had had a long day that started at 5am and it was about 10pm at this time (5 hours in)
Now the reason you are here
The players get to the seven caves and are meet with another party fleeing after failing to slay the beast, the players enter and standing before them is a white dragon (who I heavily nerfrd to give them an easier time) the dragon bellows out "more challengers or just fast food" (a line I am very proud of) and the battle commences after the dragon leaps off of its throne of bones and courses.
I have ronin and Kilrrs roll to see which way we go (it is easier for me if I have the player closest to me on my left and right roll and then we go in a circle going that players direction as it is easier to keep track of who we are up to) Ronin wins the roll so he is up first he baits the dragon with boba then goes in for an attack, his attack is successful hits then we are onto Harith's turn, he makes himself look like a female white dragon and successeds the deception roll and then seduces the dragon, I flip a coin and ask him what he beats on he beats heads, it lands on tails, he gets topped by the dragon, we are all in hysterics at this point.
My yonger brother mido leaves as he is tiered and normally is in bed 2 hours ago
The battle continues and the dragon is distracted so can do nothing, but I have it separate the party with an ice wall, the players attack the dragon with it being to distracted to do anything, it gets to below half health and flees the gave with harith and is still going at it out side the players chase the dragon and their trapped team mate outside and kill the dragon with Ash doing the final blow with his peperbox blowing up the dragons throat. The players are rewarded with sacks filled with gold and gems from the dragons lair, harrith says because he sacrificed the most for the party so he should get more the whole party was already going up 2 levels so I ask if he wants more gold and gems or an extra level, he goes for more gold and gems.
We finnished off the session on an airship on the way back to steadler with the dragon tooth and the ship crew attacking the party.
But this was some how not the weirdest session of dnd we have had that was with kilrrs harith and I in hariths campaign, that is a story for another time
Tl;Dr bard successfully seduces dragon and gets topped

We were going to pay for a home remodel with money from savings but now my wife wants to put her savings into an annuity and take out a HELOC. We already have a HELOC with available credit of $100K.
I don't want to take out a new HELOC for a larger amount. She said that she can qualify on her own for a larger HELOC. But I don't want to have our jointly owned house to have another lien on it. I told here that I won't sign anything. Hopefully she cannot close on a HELOC without my consent, but has anyone else run into this?
It's insane because the interest rate on a new HELOC is a lot more than the return that she is guaranteed on annuity (which is uninsured). But some annuity salesperson is offering her a 20% bonus on funds that she puts into an annuity, which sounds fishy to me.

I have some likely ridiculous questions to ask, and I could really use some guidance. A little background - I'm an American woman who's home town is Mobile, Alabama. I lost a lot of brain cells in NO as a teenager and had many fun misadventures. For the past 20 years I've lived in England and myself and 17-year-old daughter are flying to Mobile this summer and we're planning to visit NO during that time.
We'll be taking the Greyhound bus for the journey and plan on having one night and two full days in the city.
Here are a few questions:-
Since daughter is 17, is there an advantage planning the visit around the weekend? Will daughter be severely limited to what nightlife is on offer even if she's with her old Mum?
What taxi companies have a more reliable and safer reputation than the others? We're likely going to be hailing a taxi from the Bourbon area to the hotel for safely reasons.
I have been told New Orleans is more family friendly and gentrified now than in years past. Is it really?
And finally *is there a fun/interesting activity that may not be as well known to the tourists locals can recommend? (I haven't combed through this group yet, so apologies if this question is irritating.)
This trip is something I have been wanting to do for decades now. There was always an impediment in the past, and it feels good to actually be able to plan the journey. Thank you to those who chime in.

My old PC from about 10 yrs from this very sub, i think the memory was changed to 1600, anything worth picking to make a new build? I want to get back into PC gaming after 6 yrs of no gaming. I may just build from a company who builds it as it wasnt that fun the first time
I have £800-1200 for a new build plus peripherals and monitor.
CPU Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor £145.10 @ Ebuyer
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard £73.99 @ Dabs
Memory Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory £34.56 @ Scan.co.uk
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive £86.99 @ Amazon UK
Video Card XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card £227.74 @ Scan.co.uk
Case NZXT Phantom 410 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case £78.48 @ Scan.co.uk
Power Supply Corsair 600W ATX12V Power Supply £52.36 @ Ebuyer
Optical Drive Lite-On DS-8A8SH DVD/CD Writer £17.03 @ CCL Computers
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) £71.45 @ CCL Computers

Hello!
I need some advice. My dog’s, Rocky O'Bacon, hind legs have suddenly stopped working almost overnight.
He’s 7, and we’ve always known he had some sort of bone deformity in his overall limbs from birth, but were always recommended by the vets to keep him active, healthy diet, and so on, at least until a bigger treatment was needed.
He’s an extremely active, playful and happy dog.
There were a lot of signs that we should’ve been more attentive to.
Sometimes he’d limp from his back leg. Got prescribed anti-inflammatories and pain killers.
Sometimes we’d hear cracking coming from his hind legs.
We always thought he had a funny way of sitting.
Past saturday come around. He was... hopping. Rushed to the vet. X-Ray showed that his hips were in really bad shape. A lot of wear was showned. He was diagnosed with a chronic condition and prescribed medication.
He came home, seemed normal. Until at night he started walking in a funny way, almost like bunny hopping again.
In the morning... He’s hind legs had stopped working. Completely numb. Rushed to the vet again... Talks of possible hip dysplasia, possible spine hernias...
All of which could only be completely confirmed through cat scan (my native language isn’t English, but I think that’s what you call a tomography). Mind you, we’re in a country where it’s not that easy to find a institution with the machine.
He started phisiotherapy right way, as his amazing new vet is trying to restore some feeling to his legs, but no changed as of yet.
I’m so heartbroken. I’ve grown up with this dog. He’s my dad’s Shadows, he’s best friend. And it hurts so much to see how much he wants to walk after us, and follow us, and sleep on our beds, and annoy our cat. But how he’s confined to a kennel, because he needs to be on absolute rest until monday, when the cat scan will happen at a veterinary uni.
We’re prepared to do whatever it takes. We’ve spent a fortune we don’t have this week. The cat scan will take more than half of my pay check. But I don't care... He’s our baby.
What I want to know is... Any other owners in this situation. Did your dog walk again after surgery? Did phisiotherapy help? If they didnt walk again, do you use those doggy wheelchairs? Do they help? Can an active dog still have a happy life without complete mobility?
I'm really lost.

Hi all - long time lurker first time poster to this sub. I’m having a hard time gaging what’s “normal” with my little girl, just hoping for some reassurance. A little background:

 * She had a gross motor delay and hip dysplasia, and completed about 18 months of PT via telehealth through early intervention services. She’s now “average” for gross motor, but still extremely cautious and lacks confidence with physical play like jungle gyms * At the time of her most recent evaluation when being discharged from PT, she scored in the 99th percentile for Cognition, in the 97th each for receptive and expressive language, and in the 85th percentile for Social / Emotional. * She has shown signs of being very sensitive, and has a stim she does when overstimulated. She squeezes her hands together very tightly, or sometimes while squeezing her hands, will push them against her face. In the past this has never gotten in the way of her play/ interactions, and doesn’t hurt her. * 4 months ago she started 3 half days of preschool. Within those 4 months her great grandmother (she’s extremely close with) was diagnosed with cancer and her baby sister was born. 

So onto the subject at hand: my little girl has recently in the last few months gotten strong enough and confident enough to start taking on jungle gyms at parks. Things like the stairs, going down slides, over bridges, and some different ladders. Before she was strong enough to do these things, we would go to the park much less frequently as all she really wanted to do was swing on the swings, and we have one in our yard.
Now that she’s gained confidence and ability, we’re going more often. However, with these new skills other issues have arisen. She is terrified of other children playing at the park. If another child is on the equipment with her, she melts down, cries and yells “no no, I don’t want to see them” and will do whatever it takes to get back into my arms, regardless of safety. She doesn’t do these things in other situations, like going to the store. If we’re in Target, Costco etc she’s more than happy to wave or smile or say hi to anyone passing. I chalked it up to her being nervous still on the equipment, and figured we’d approach it slowly and she would work herself out of it.
This last week I was blindsided by her preschool teacher, who told me my daughter was scared of her classmates. When they approach her, she backs away and melts down, crying and hiding, like she does at the park. I was shocked to hear this firstly because she’s been in the program for 4 months and I’d not heard anything about this from the beginning, but also because my daughter GUSHES about her friends at school all the time. She knows all their names, talks about them constantly, asks to see them on days when she’s not at school, and lives for school days.
My husband and I both work from home, and she was born in 2020, so these preschool days are really her first foray into group play with her peers as well as truly being separated from us. She has always been extremely cautious and sensitive by nature, and her advanced cognition, language, and lack of motor skills have evolved her play. She’s very imaginative, and enjoys lots of conversation and emotional play. She loves watching other children, and observes them very closely. She just doesn’t seem to have confidence to play with or around them just yet, particularly if they’re running around or engaging in more physical play.
When looking into this topic obviously it’s hard to determine what’s typical or not, particularly in light of everything these last few years, and also taking into account the huge changes my daughter has been facing at home with her new sister and her great grandmother becoming so ill all right as she started school. We bought her some books this week about making friends, different kinds of play, and a book on being overstimulated hoping we could have some additional conversations to support her on the topic.
I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced this, if the time it’s taking her to adjust seems fine, etc. Maybe this is just me screaming into the void, idk. Help!