Ordering My Golden Child Pump It Up Albums via Makestar

It still feels so surreal that Golden Child has completed their self-discovery trilogy and that they are back as Bright Child with their second single Pump It Up on October 7th, 2020! I was quite indecisive on where to preorder my albums, especially with all the swirl around Makestar recently, but in the end I did choose Makestar here because 1) album sales are counted, it's just uncertainly exactly when the sales are counted; 2) many idol groups have been holding videocall events through Makestar in order to gain album sales, so I would trust that their entertainment companies would have verified this beforehand; 3) Makestar gives the best benefits (2 unreleased photocards per album, 10 total); and 4) Makestar is still the cheapest (Ktown4u is actually a few cents cheaper per album, but no preorder benefits). Of course the other downside about going through Makestar is the terrible pulls, but I'm hoping with 3 versions, the pulls will be better than if there were only 1 or 2 versions.

The Makestar preorder ended on October 6th. Makestar announced the winners for the video call (30) and Polaroids (10) on October 8th, and the video call event took place on the 10th. On the 24th I noticed that the project status updated to "reward shipping start".

On October 26th I received a DHL notification stating that my package has shipped. I received my package on the 27th.

My albums came in a cardboard box. One of the corners arrived dented in, but luckily inside had no damage.

Opening up the box reveals the posters at the very top.

Underneath the posters were all 15 albums stacked on one side, air filler on the other side, and the Makestar benefit photocard sets on the top. Overall I'm really satisfied with this packaging, especially with the way the products and air filler fit perfectly in the box.

All please note that this isn't an unboxing post - this is more of a recap of ordering from Makestar and my pulls. I'll have a more thorough unboxing post soon!

Each poster came folded and inside its own resealable bag. They arrived stacked together, with 5 Version A, then 5 Version B, then 5 Version C.

Each album set comes with 1 Makestar photocard set of 6 photocards, which came in penny sleeves.

The Makestar photocards all have a glossy finish. This is the design of the backside.

These are all the photocards I received by set. As you can see, it's definitely not evenly distributed. I received 30 photocards, but in the end only had 1 complete member set thanks to the scarce Jibeom card.

Here are all my Makestar pulls: Daeyeol (x3), Y (x5), Jangjun (x3), Tag (x4), Seungmin (x4), Jaehyun (x3), Jibeom, Donghyun (x3), Joochan (x2), and Bomin (x2).

My albums came in 3 groups: the top contained 6 albums wrapped in 1 layer of bubblewrap, the middle contained 6 albums wrapped in 2 layers of bubblewrap, and the bottom had 3 albums wrapped in 1 layer of bubblewrap.

Overall the albums came in good condition, and generally the corners weren't bent.

However there were white marks on the front covers of 2 of my red albums; I was able to wipe off the top one but not the other.

Each album comes with 1 AR card out of 10, and 2 photocards out of 60. There are 20 red photocards, 20 yellow, and 20 blue, and the photos are from those respective shoots.

These are the 15 AR cards and 30 photocards that I pulled. I was really pleasantly surprised at how few duplicates there were, especially compared to my pulls from Take A Leap. Out of 15 albums, I was able to pull 8/10 members with 7 duplicates. And this is really great especially because the AR cards can only be scanned once, so I'd prefer to pull these myself rather than trade for AR cards. As for the photocards, I pulled 21/60 with 9 duplicates.

These are all the duplicate cards I pulled. Overall, I think it was a pretty good pull! I'm happy that I got a variety of photocards from all 3 versions, especially and that I got majority of the AR cards.

Well, it definitely was a struggle waiting for my albums to arrive especially with promotions wrapping up, but nonetheless I'm happy with my pulls and am excited to blog about the album versions soon. You can check out my unboxing review of the Pump It Up albums here.

Golden Child Ontact Concert - NOW Merchandise Review (Part 2 of 2)

Here is the second and final part of my unboxing review for Golden Child's first online concert NOW official merchandise. I previously blogged about purchasing this merch from Everline here, and gave an intro and blogged about the wrist band & photocard, mug, pin button set, book pouch set, and postcard set(+mask) here. Below I'll blog about the puzzle, t-shirt, bandana, and behind book & photocard.

Puzzle 

The puzzle came in a cardboard box with a clear plastic shrinkwrap outside.

The box looks so official...I can't really explain it, but like a set you'd find in a hobby shop, and it seems like more dedication was needed to create this product compared to the others.

The top of the box displays the puzzle image once complete. This is a 500 piece puzzle.

The bottom of the shrinkwrap has the product label and authentication sticker.

Opening the box reveals the contents, with the puzzle pieces inside a bag at the top.

Here are all the contents of the puzzle: 500 puzzle pieces inside a ziplock bag, a folded poster, a bag of epoxy resin, and a spreading tool.

There are some random combinations within the concert merchandise, such as postcards and masks, but this puzzle and poster concert does make sense to me, especially since the poster is the same image as the puzzle. Also this poster image is the same as the puzzle, whereas the image on the box is slightly different; you can tell by where the text sits in comparison to the various pink shades in the background.

Ever since quarantine, I've really gotten into puzzles and usually tackle 1000 piece European paintings. So for a puzzle to be one of the concert goods, I was especially excited for this item! Here I'll give my pros and cons about this puzzle in comparison with puzzles manufactured by puzzle companies:

• +: The pieces come in a reusable ziplock bag, which is much more organized when putting the puzzle away.
• +: There were no crumbs within the bag. A lot of puzzles I've opened have little cardboard particles that made me sneeze a lot, but the puzzle pieces here were all very clean of excess debris.
• +: All the pieces were separated already. I've had many puzzles where pieces were already stuck together (both correct and incorrect pieces), and one where two pieces were stuck together because it wasn't cut thoroughly. But all the pieces here were very clean cut.
• +: This set comes with epoxy and a spreading tool! I've never seen these inclusions before, and the price of this puzzle is about average to the puzzles I've gotten (again ignoring the ridiculous Eline shipping fee). There are no instructions for using these, but luckily when Golden Child unboxed their concert merchandise, they explained the use of these!
• +: There is a good variety of puzzle piece shapes, making this puzzle fun. This is more of a personal opinion, but I just get really bored if all the pieces are the same shape, because then you can't use the shape as a hint for what type of piece belongs where.
• +: When you put 2 pieces together, you know that they fit perfectly and that it's correct.
• -: My only negative point is that the pieces don't stick well together. So if I pieced together Jangjun and wanted to move those 10 pieces next to Joochan, I couldn't hold Jangjun steadily. I'd have to take Jangjun apart, maybe 2 pieces at a time.

While there is a variety of puzzle piece shapes, majority of them are this one. It made it a bit challenging, especially after finishing the text and the boys, but nonetheless it was a challenge and fun to complete. And the background looks quite difficult and at first I lost motivation to complete it, but it's interesting once you see the slight nuances in the shade and detail.

Here is the completed puzzle! This is the first time I completed a puzzle where I didn't start with the edge pieces first. The puzzle and poster are both about 20.5" by 15".

T-Shirt

The t-shirt came in a clear resealable bag, folded to display the image on the chest. This is a really create screenshot of Golden Child's "One (Lucid Dream)" music video, and is nice that it doesn't exactly scream "Kpop" so I'd feel comfortable wearing this anywhere.

The backside has the product label sticker on the bag.

I didn't have much expectation for this item, mostly because I'd only wear it on special occasions to best preserve it. But it far exceeded my expectations and then some! It's 100% cotton but it's really thick and soft inside, and is like a thin sweater! I was really pleasantly surprised on the quality of the material.

The tag on the neckline has the old logo. Here you can get a better look at the material.

The back of the tee, near the neckline, has "ONE LUCID DREAM" printed.

The shirt is one size, and is quite large and boxy. I'm 5'4" and 105lb, and this is how the shirt fits on me. It's long enough to be a mini dress and quite roomy.

Here you can see how big the dimensions are: 1 is where my shoulder is, and 2 is where the shoulder seam on the tee is.

Bandana

The bandana came folded and within a clear resealable bag.

The backside has the product label sticker on the bag.

Here is how the bandana looks like. It uses the new logo. It was entertaining seeing the members of Golden Child demonstrating many ways to wear the bandana during their Vlive while presales were happening! And during the encore of the concert, the members wore their bandanas different ways too to demonstrate the versatility. I don't really have the confidence to wear a bandana, so I'll probably end up tying it around a bag or something.

The backside doesn't have a design and as you can see, the fabric is rather thin and there are a few loose strands. The bandana is about 23" by 23".

Behind Book & Photocard

The behind book came in a shrinkwrap while the photocard came separately in a resealable clear bag. The cover is very simple, with most of the text in black and "NOW" in a metallic red.

The new logo is on the back cover, also in the red metallic. The product label sticker is on the shrinkwrap. 

The book is really high quality! It is a hardcover, layflat book so you can see all the pages without loosing any of the image in the spine. The black text is glossy while the red is metallic, and they're all embossed. It is about 7.75" by 10.5" by 0.56" and contains 110 pages.

The behind book is broken up into 3 sections: the white outfit shoot, the hanbok shoot, and the pink shoot. This white outfit shoot contains 12 pages; it begins with 2 pages per member containing 3 photos, and it's in age order starting with Daeyeol.

When the concert poster was first released, I wasn't really into the concept. But now looking more closely at the details of the shoot, it's pretty cool! I really like seeing the TV monitors and trying to identify the scenes and music videos of each one. Also wow Jangjun looks really good with this shade!

This closeup of Tag is definitely my favorite photo from this shoot! Everything about it is perfection!

There are also 2 group photos at the end of this section. All group photos within this book are 2-page spreads.

It's nice how all of the photos in this book are quite big and high quality, though at times there is still wasted space like this.

The next section contains 20 pages, all from the hanbok shoot. The photos again are in age order starting with Daeyeol; each member has 4 pages, and 1 photo per page. This is definitely my most favorite shoot out of the 3! Unfortunately there are no group photos from this shoot.

The way Seungmin's hands are hidden by the sleeves is just too cute!

I am just speechless; Jaehyun's photos are so beautiful! This is definitely one of my top favorite looks on him!

Donghyun fits this look so well, along with his facial expression!

I really like the details of these outfits, and how each member's outfit is slightly different.

The last section contains 22 pages from the pink photoshoot. It begins with 4 pages per member, including 3 photos and 1 printed message.

This photoshoot is really growing on me! I especially love how the denim jackets are each personalized with the member's name.

And the backside of the jacket even has "Golden Child" on it!

This has to be peak Seungmin cuteness! I think this is my absolutely most favorite picture of him.

Jibeom's haircut here makes him look so cute and boyish!

Joochan looks so small standing inside the box!

At the end of this section are 2 group photos. This photo is just so cute! It's also the same image used for the group photocard that came with the wristband.

The end of the book contains a final group photo.

Here is the photocard set that came with the behind book. These images are closeup shots from the behind book.

The backsides of the photocards match the printed messages in the behind book and included the members' printed autographs. The photocards have a glossy finish, like the photocard that came with the wristband.

Overall, I really like the variety of merchandise sold for NOW. It has a great mix of practical items and paper goods (ie. postcards), and oddly enough some items contain both (ie. postcard and mask set, wrist band and photocard, book pouch set with postcards, puzzle with poster). While preordering, I was most excited about the puzzle and behind book, but after opening everything, I'm still most excited about the puzzle and behind book (though honestly that ugly streak on the front cover made me deterred at first), and am most pleasantly surprised by the t-shirt!