Ed over at Faceplate Addict agreed it was low quality when he got his first faceplates from Subcostume. He worked with Subcostume to improve the quality and offered me a replacement. Well, here it is.

Left: official original faceplate, middle: first custom faceplate, right: replacement faceplate

I encourage you to click the picture and look at it in a bigger size. The colors on the replacement faceplate are much better. The faceplate itself is white, unlike the beige of the original. The colors are more vibrant and the details in the picture actually make it to the faceplate. Compare Rin’s hand, foot, and skirt.

Photo taken using flash. Loss of color accuracy, but you can see the differences in detail better.

The faceplate itself is also better. The doors feel more solid, though nowhere near the quality of the original. The IR thing is black, like the original, and actually stays on the faceplate now. I already lost the one on the first faceplate since it was loose.

Same order as before.

As you (might) be able to see, the back of the new faceplate is a lot more like the official faceplate. Everything has sharper and more defined edges, making it seem like like a cheap impression like the first one. Ironically, the new one weighs in at even less. 54.4 g

Though the faceplate is much better now, it’s still hard to excuse Subcostume’s customer service. They advertised a discount and never gave it to me. They ignored all my inquiries about it. They promised to refund my friend but never gave it to him. These are all signs of a company you should normally avoid dealing with.

The only reason I got a replacement is because of Ed’s dedication, and he doesn’t even work for Subcostume. Maybe they should learn a thing or two about communication and customer satisfaction from him.

Just had to share my new custom faceplate.

Rin <3. Colors are a bit off though and it feels cheap. Compare the official faceplate with this one below.

Official one is on the left. Custom one is on the right. The IR receiver thing wasn’t put on well and now it falls off on the custom one. Less metal is used and the plastic feels cheaper overall. Trade offs are worth it to have Rin on my 360.

To give another idea about the difference in quality, the official faceplate weighs about 63.8 g. The custom one, 57.8 g. 6 g difference may not seem like much, but that’s equivalent to a typical SD card case. That’s missing. From something that should have the same dimensions.

Mini review/rant of the place I got it from: I got the faceplate from Subcostume for ~$26 shipped, and I really can’t recommend them, which is why I’m not linking to them. They had a $3 discount for new members when I ordered, but I didn’t get it when I paid, so I submitted a ticket and they never replied. The day after I submitted my ticket, the banner mysteriously disappeared from their site. Hm… I wonder why. Tried another ticket and still no reply. My friend got a faceplate too and they replied to his ticket saying they would refund him, but it’s been about 20 days now and still no refund for him. They’re also kind of slow making it. Site says 2-4 business days, but it ended up being 7 or 8 regular days for me.

Little Busters! Esctasy Perfect Visual Fanbook… whatever that means. I haven’t really looked through it yet since I haven’t beaten the game yet. It includes all the CGs added to the Ecstasy edition plus a bunch of other stuff.

Okay, the main point of my order was to get h-manga since my friends and I bought some magazines at AX and were reading them. Guess which magazine we were reading.

This order actually came in two parts… since I was one manga too heavy (5 kg limit). And apparently, I actually ordered Kodomo no Jikan 1 for this order… which I forgot about and bought another copy in Japan. So this copy apparently cost me retail + 430 yen for a second shipment. Great. It better be good.

Total damage (including shipping): 14,563 yen ($153.10 at time of buying)

Gosick 3 and Kodomo no Jikan 1-6. Damn. I notice a pattern here.

Little Busters Ecstasy (finally got the first edition!) and Tapestry with the telephone card. Someone recommended Tapestry, and it was cheap enough to get on a whim.

Symphonic Rain (the first version with more physical bonuses) is something I’ve wanted for a while. I could have gotten it cheaper new if I got the re-release, but physical bonuses can’t be beaten! I also got Primary (first edition) because it was pretty cheap and the main girl seems like a tsundere I’d like.

I got G-senjou no Maou (first edition with the huge extra book) because it’s highly recommended. I also got Katahane because it looks nice and I heard good things about it.

Some doujinshi. The Tony one is more like an art book, and it was well worth the cost. The Hinagiku one is a bit thin, but it was enjoyable.

See any resemblances? It’s the only reason I got the doujinshi on the left. It was freaking expensive, and the contents turned out to be mediocre (it’s completely black and white…) I obviously got the magazine because Horo is awesome.

Oh shit. A normal game. Ryuu ga Gotoku 3. I thought it was pretty cheap so I picked it up. And another “Oh shit.” I bought a figure even though I said I wasn’t going to, but Amazon Danbo is hard to pass up on.

First off, some figures. I keep saying to myself that I’m not going to buy any more figures, but that’s probably not going to happen, is it?

Horo from Spicy Wolf and Kagamin cosplaying as Miku. What could be better? I’ll post a review/more pictures later.

Second, the ridiculously cheap Planet Earth HD from Amazon.

Total damage: ~$113