Pungdeng-E 2nd Album - 액션 풍뎅이 Action Pungdeng-E Go! - Album Review

Looking over my K-Pop collection, I've realised that I really like wacky concept groups! Orange Caramel, Crayon Pop and Pungdeng-E of course! That is who we will be looking at today with their 2nd Album 액션 풍뎅이 Action Pungdeng-E Go! This one was a hard one to find and I ended up purchasing it in a bundle with their 1st Album 풍뎅이 풍뎅이 Go! Pungdeng-E Pungdeng-E Go! I've reviewed it previously and you can read that review here! Such a good deal for two amazing albums!

2nd Album 액션 풍뎅이 Action Pungdeng-E Go! is Pungdeng-E's second Korean album and it was released in 2014. The album only came in one version and was available through mainstream K-Pop stores. Unfortunately this gem is now out of print and it took myself a long time to come across a physical copy of one. The album comes with the following contents:

• CD - 5 track album
• Photobook

The front cover has the girls posing with the cabbages which you may think is strange at first. However the title track of this release 배추보쌈 Baechu Bossam is about cabbages and I highly recommend you check out the MV to understand the story of this song. This photo is quite bizarre to look at as it feels like I took the photo out of focus but it is actually just an effect applied to the photo on the actual album. The back cover is super cute with some cartoons of the members in their corresponding colours. That background is totally crazy and very on brand for Pungdeng-E. Their albums always have a lot of sponsors which are listed down the bottom and that is something you don't see too often on K-Pop albums. Pungdeng-E was pretty nugu though and not very well known in the western market. Quite popular in Japan though as that is where I got hold of this album.

The album features a digipack style with the plastic casing for the CD housing. Whilst I love this design, I've had Pungdeng-E albums in the past that have a broken casing so it can be a tad fragile. The CD does have one of the best designs of it of all time with the girls heads blending into a cabbage background. Absolute madness of a design but I love it! All three members look super cute and it's impossible to pick a bias.

The photobook sits on the left side of the album interior and has 26 pages. It is full of great photos of the group in some colourful outfits. Whilst small, this photobook packs a punch! You get a selection of group and individual member photos along with some behind the scenes snaps at the end. Other Pungdeng-E albums have this same section and I quite like them as it shows a different side of the girls. They did work hard back when they were active and performed at a fair amount of events. Lyrics and productions credits are included in the book as usual.

In typical Pungdeng-E fashion, this release is called an album but actually only contains 4 tracks plus an instrumental. Not a full album in a typical sense and more like a mini album. The only new track to this release is the title track 배추보쌈 Baechu Bossam which is an upbeat K-Pop song infused with rap. This was actually the first song I heard from the group and eventually looked up more of their discography. I think I came across the MV randomly one day on YouTube and was like 'yes, I want more of this craziness!'. Apart from the instrumental for 배추보쌈 Baechu Bossam, the other tracks on the album are older tracks that were featured on the 1st Album and through digital singles.

1. 배추보쌈 Baechu Bossam
2. 알탕 Al-Tang
3. 솜사탕 Cotton Candy
4. 잘탕 Jal-Tang
5. 배추보쌈 Baechu Bossam (Instrumental)

Now that this review is done, I have reached the last Pungdeng-E album in my collection to review. There is one release from their discography that I do not own and are forever searching for. Maybe one day I will be able to review that one if I ever find it. I hope you enjoyed this crazy Pungdeng-E journey with me and it is sad that it has come to an end. The group is no longer active and is pretty much disbanded. Wherever Blue, Red and Yellow are now, I hope they are having wonderful lives and thank you for being joy with your music and adventures! Don't forget to check out the amazing MV for 배추보쌈 Baechu Bossam!

Pungdeng-E 1st Album - 풍뎅이 풍뎅이 Go! Pungdeng-E Pungdeng-E Go! - Album Review

 Found a backlog of CD's photos on my computer so it's the perfect excuse for another music review. This time it's another classic from the quirky Korean Pop group Pungdeng-E! This is their 1st Album - 풍뎅이 풍뎅이 Go! Pungdeng-E Pungdeng-E Go! Well it's got the word album title but it's more like a single or mini album if we look at the track listing. Let's get straight into it with this fun cover image and CD!

풍뎅이 풍뎅이 Go! Pungdeng-E Pungdeng-E Go! was released in 2013 and is the group's debut physical release. It only came in one version and I'm not sure if it came with photocards as I got mine second hand from Yahoo Auctions. I was excited to find this as it's quite rare and it was in a set with their 2nd album 액션 풍뎅이 Action Pungdeng-E Go! What a steal! 풍뎅이 풍뎅이 Go! Pungdeng-E Pungdeng-E Go! comes with the following:

• CD- 6 track album
• Photobook

I do enjoy the album design of Pungdeng-E's Korean releases as they have consistency and all four of their releases are the same size. The front cover has a photo of the three members in an outfit from the MV for 솜사탕 Cotton Candy. This cover is quite nice as it has a photo of the members that matches the concept of the album and I'm a big fan of covers like this. So over the boring plain colour or logo trend. The back cover contains the tracking listing and sponsorship information for the release. The group's releases are always like this and I assume the group had a ton of sponsors to help fund releases.

November Favourites

This month's favourites are going to be incredibly short as not much happened this month for me besides work. Like the month just went by so quick and we are in December all ready! That's the joys of Christmas being the busiest month at work and that will continue for at least a month and half. I didn't really play any games this month besides making some colour collection outfits in Styling Star. Played a little bit of Pocket Camp but I'm really just waiting until next year when New Horizons comes out and I'll get a Switch console.

The last week has been crazy music wise with some big announcements related to my fave groups. My favourite member from KARA passed away sadly the other day and I've just been watching old KARA clips on Youtube for memories. MOMOLAND's company finally got their act together and announced some members would be leaving. I'm just waiting for them to announce Daisy has left because that girl needs to find a better company who treats her better. MOMOLAND just crashed and burned this year for me. I finally listened to their Japanese album Chiri Chiri recently and I wasn't impressed. The songs were a bit blah for me and you can really notice the difference with the missing members not singing on the tracks. Funny how MOMOLAND is totally going the Crayon Pop route which was my big group back in the day. Also I found out today that Pungdeng-E have announced a hiatus of some sort and will be performing a last live for fans. The writing was kinda on the wall for that one as Red hasn't been in the group for ages and there hasn't been much new content. Shame because I really liked Pungdeng-E for their uniqueness and fun sound. E-girls brought out their new song Easy Come, Easy Go in recent weeks and honestly I hate it. I listened to it on Spotify today and had to turn it off. The sound of the song just isn't very E-girls for me and whilst the verse is fine, the chorus is what does it for me. I feel since the reformation years ago, everything for me apart from EG-ENERGY (which is an amazing song I won't lie) has been kinda average. The group is releasing bops like everything on the EG-CRAZY album anymore and I didn't mind Cinderella Fit as it reminded me of Follow Me. I did have this photo to share from earlier this month when my workmate was asking me about what photocards were. I was unboxing a k-pop mini album at work and she was completely new to the concept of collecting k-pop. I attempted to take a photo of all the photocards I had at that time (I've managed to get a few more since) and whilst I don't seriously collect them, I've built up quite a collection over the years!

Pungdeng-E プンデンイ Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay - Single Review (Type A Edition)

The final piece in the Pungdeng-E Japanese discography series is finally here to complete my collection. Well I did actually get this a little while ago, I've just had time to finally write a review of the single. This is the Type A Edition of Pungdeng-E's debut Japanese single 側にいて Stay and boy is it hard to get hold of. It took me over a year to find the Type B edition (which you can find my review of here!) and then months later I finally found the Type A edition. Here is the single in all it's beauty and hilarious spelling errors.

Pungdeng-E プンデンイ Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay

 側にいて Stay is Pungdeng-E's 1st and so far only Japanese single. THe group has only released this single in two editions and a Japanese debut album. They have stacks of promo in Japan but never really release anything which is disappointing. 側にいて Stay comes in two editions: Type A and Type B. It's one of those fun releases that you can only get at events the group holds in certain stores in Japan. I brought both my editions from private sellers in Japan who would've brought them at the events. The Type A edition is exactly the same as Type B and just has a different cover and design. It comes with the following contents:

• CD - 4 Track single
• Jewel case
• Lyrics booklet

Pungdeng-E プンデンイ Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay

 Compared to the fun and quirky design of Type B, Type A has a cute maid theme to the single. It has each member in a maid outfit to match their corresponding colour (Red, Yellow & Blue). The single has photos on both the front and back cover and the design layout is the same as Type B. The four tracks on the single are listed on the back along with production credits.

Pungdeng-E プンデンイ Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay

Zenmarket Haul - Red Velvet, Orange Caramel, E-girls, April & Pungdeng-E

Received an exciting Zenmarket haul recently that contained some releases that I have been after for quite some time. I finally found Type A of Pungdeng-E's first Japanese single 側にいて Stay which I have searching forever for! I randomly checked Yahoo Auctions before work one day and came across a listing for Type A and was so excited about it. Told all my workmates about it all day who probably think I'm crazy haha. Anyway, all the items I got are pictured below and I even got photocards with three of the releases.

First up is April's first Japanese single TinkerBell which was something I was looking at collecting for a little while. They're a cute group with some great Korean releases and have only released two Japanese singles so far. I got a brand new unopened copy of the limited edition CD+DVD of TinkerBell. Originally I wanted to get the fanclub edition but it's rare to find so I picked up this one first. The group comes from the same company as KARA who always had great Japanese releases so I'm happy to see DSP sticking with the quality of single designs. 

TinkerBell Limited Edition CD+DVD

Next up is the limited edition CD+PHOTOBOOK edition of Red Velvet's first Japanese mini album #Cookie Jar. I only heard the song recently and decided to pick up the mini straight away after falling in love with it. I found a listing of the mini album in great condition that came with the special HMV sticker with it. It was a decent price and I love this design and concept. It's so typically Red Velvet and has a book design to it which I don't usually see with Japanese releases.

#Cookie Jar HMV Sticker

Pungdeng-E 4th Album 머물러줘 Stay - Album Review

I was listening to some Pungdeng-E songs this week, so I thought it would be nice to post another music review of the group. I got their 4th Album 머물러줘 Stay a while ago and seems like a good time to share the album. I had been after this album for a while and got it on sale on YesAsia which was super exciting!

Pungdeng-E's 4th Album 머물러줘 Stay

Stay is the 4th Album from the Korean group Pungdeng-E and was released in 2017. It is the most recent physical Korean release from the group and includes a number of tracks that have been previously released by the girls. The album is your standard K-Pop release design with a photobook and CD. The album comes with the following contents:

• CD - 10 track album
• Photobook

Front & back cover of 머물러줘 Stay

The front cover has a photo of the girls which I quite like. I'm always a fan of album covers with photos of the members. I find album covers with plain designs or logos a bit boring, I'd much rather have a photo. The current logo of the group is featured on the front cover which shows the beetle icon of the group. The one thing that amuses me about this album design is the way is says '4nd Album'. Like what? Such a strange error that even repeats on the spine and back cover. I actually noticed the other day that the spine of their Japanese single Stay says Tapy B. I laughed for ages when I noticed it. No clue why these bizarre spelling errors keep happening on Pungdeng-E releases. The back cover of the album lists the track listing and some production/copyright information about the album. The two new tracks from the group are highlighted as NEW with Stay being listed as the title track.

머물러줘 Stay is your typical K-Pop album design with the photobook stuck inside the album on the left side as usual. The CD is housed in a plastic casing which isn't the strongest. The punch clip part of mine was broken when it arrived. But I never have much luck with this style of holder with DVD cases and always have to swap them over at stores. The CD features the beetle logo of the group and has a similar colour aesthetic to the logo.

My K-Pop Collection 2018

The other week I posted my J-Pop Collection for 2018 so it's now time for my K-Pop Collection for 2018! I only brought a few new additions for my K-Pop collection this year as I was focusing more on Japanese releases. Most of the new K-Pop albums and singles I got this year were releases from 2018 and others were cheap ones I came across. Just like with my J-Pop collection post, I'll be listing everything at the end as well as any reviews I have posted of the albums and singles. So here's a picture of all my K-Pop albums and singles and boy was it a pain to get them to sit up for this. I think next time I'll have to find somewhere bigger for the photo or take separate ones as K-Pop releases are much larger than standard jewel cases.

First off is something I haven't posted about on Marzipan Wonderland yet. Last month I brought a Crayon Pop single that I had been wanting for ages. It's the groups 4th single Bar Bar Bar and it's hard to come by. Most copies I usually see were quite pricey however I got this one for 950JPY from Japan. So excited to add this to my Crayon Pop collection as they are one of my favourite groups. No other additions to my Korean Crayon Pop collection so here's a quick picture of all the releases together.

The one I.O.I release I was missing from my collection was re-issued earlier this year so I picked it up for my collection. The mini-album I got was Miss Me? which is the groups second physical release. I think Chrysalis still has my favourite packaging out of the three but it's the hardest to store for me. I always have it standing up because it's difficult to put in my bookshelf on it's side with other albums.

Added a new group to my collection this year and that was WJSN! I've always kinda been interested in the group but not on a serious level. I got the groups 1st Album Happy Moment as a random buy into town one day and the Dream Your Dream mini album was a purchase from Japan. I mainly picked it up as it was incredibly cheap and I was interested in collecting the groups releases. I've actually ordered their first mini album Would You Like? and it should be here next month.

Pungdeng-E プンデンイ Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay - Single Review (Type B Edition)

After months of searching, I finally got my hands on a copy of Pungdeng-E's first Japanese single 側にいて Stay. I came across the Type B edition of the single on Zenmarket and jumped at the chance to purchase it. So let's take a look at the elusive Japanese release from Pungdenge-E.

Pungdeng-E Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay

側にいて Stay is Pungdeng-E's 1st Japanese single and was released in May 2017. The group had previously released a Japanese album titled 1st Japanese Album Ppi Ppi Ppa Ppa ピピパパ in 2016 which was an amazing release. I've posted a review of the album here so take a look to find out more about the group. 側にいて Stay was released in two editions: Type A and Type B. I purchased a copy of Type B in excellent condition from a seller in Japan. Now this single is incredibly difficult to find and I believe that is due to it being one of those releases you can only get at certain events/stores in Japan when the group is promoting. I've been looking for a long time for the single and only seen a copy available recently. These types of releases are always such a pain to find. At least the group's Japanese album was available for purchase through online stores. The copy of Pungdeng-E's Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay I brought includes the following contents:

• Jewel case
• Plastic sleeve cover
• Lyrics booklet
• CD - 4 track album

Front & Back Covers

The front cover of the album features the three group members in their representative colours: Red, Yellow & Blue. The artwork features a graffiti style print with some musical images such as speakers and music notes. The groups current logo is used on both the front and back cover as well as the group name プンデンイ being printed in Japanese. The back cover features another set of pictures of the girls along with track listing and single information. The 4 tracks on the CD are listed up the top and the publishing information is listed on the bottom. The RRP for the single is ¥1500 according to the group's Japanese website but I got mine for only  ¥280 (excluding shipping and fees).

Track listing on the back cover

The inside of the jewel case has a simple black and white colour scheme and contains a lyrics booklet and CD. The CD features the group's beetle symbol as well as the group logo and single name. I quite like the design of the CD as it ties in well with the group's image and branding. The jewel case was sturdy and held the CD in place during shipping. I talked more about the shipping in my original haul post of the single as well as my AFTERSCHOOL albums I received.

Giant Zenmarket Haul - AFTERSCHOOL & Pungdeng-E

After a few months break from Zenmarket, another haul has appeared at my mailbox and this one is the largest yet! Recently I came across this amazing listing of 20 AFTERSCHOOL albums and I was just amazed at it. The set featured a variety of Japanese singles and albums from the group along with some Korean albums. The main thing that attracted me to this set was the fact the seller was including the full set of Heaven Mu-Mo singles. I've never seen the actual full box set available so I just had to get it because of that. Here's a picture of all the CD's I received plus the one Pungdeng-E single I have been searching for a long time for.

Some of the singles and albums I got had photocards which is rare to see sellers include them for used CD's. I was quite happy to see a number of Lizzy ones included as she is the only member of the group I'm interested in collecting photocards for. I will be posting reviews and more photos of all these CD's eventually. So in my order, I received the following singles & albums:

• Bang! - CD+DVD Type A
• Bang! - CD+DVD Type B
• Bang! - CD Only
• Diva - CD+DVD Type A
• Diva - CD+DVD Type B
• Lady Luck/Dilly Dally - CD+DVD (MV Edition)
• Lady Luck/Dilly Dally - CD+DVD (Live Edition)
• Lady Luck/Dilly Dally - CD Only
• Rambling Girls/Because Of You - CD+DVD (Because Edition)
• Rambling Girls/Because Of You - CD Only
• PLAYGIRLZ - CD+DVD (MV Edition)
• PLAYGIRLZ - CD Only
• Shh - CD+DVD Edition
• Heaven - CD+DVD Edition
• Heaven - CD Only
• Heaven - Mu-Mo 8CD Set
• Dress To Kill - CD+DVD+Photobook(Japan Version)
• Virgin - CD+Photobook (Korean Album)
• Happy Pledis - The First Single Hazel Eyes - CD+Photobook (Korean Single)
• Cheot Sarang 첫사랑 (First Love) - The 6th Maxi Single - CD+Photobook (Korean Single)
• Pungdeng-E - Japan 1st Single 側にいて (Stay) - Type B CD Only

First I'll talk about the Pungdeng-E single before we get into all the AFTERSCHOOL ones. I had been searching for this CD for a long time. I have their 1st Japanese Album Ppi Ppi Ppa Ppa ピピパパ but never saw the single available anywhere online. It seems it's one of those fun releases that you can only get at selected times at certain physical stores in Japan. Those types of releases frustrate me as they are always nearly impossible to get hold of. Luckily I found the Type B version of the single on Zenmarket for quite cheap so I brought it. Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but I'm excited to hear some more Japanese tracks from the group.

Japan 1st Single 側にいて (Stay)

Now onto the AFTERSCHOOL CD's and there's a lot of them. Most of the CD's were ones I had on my J-Pop wishlist so it was great to be able to cross so many off at once. I did get a few doubles as I already own the CD Only editions of Heaven, Bang! and Lady Luck/Dilly Dally as well as the CD+DVD+Photobook of Dress To Kill. I'll sell the doubles as I need to space in collection and it would be nice for another fan to have them for their collection. And I'd like to thank the seller for keeping the original plastic sleeves on the CD's. I absolutely love when CD's come with the high quality plastic sleeves and it's always great if the original promo stickers are still on them too. All the non-cardboard sleeve editions included the OBI's so big shout out to the seller for having those because I love those!

With the photocards, I only got doubles of one luckily! I already have the group photocard from Diva so that was the only one. I've always been a fan of the design of AFTERSCHOOL's Japanese photocards as they are always high quality and never those awful selfie style ones I don't like. It annoys me that the Heaven cards are slightly smaller than the rest, what's up with that? I shall have to do a photocard post eventually as I've got quite a few now considering I don't focus on collecting them.

AFTERSCHOOL Photocards

The set I brought came with all three versions of AFTERSCHOOL's debut Japanese single Bang! I already had the CD version but the seller included a unopened one. I opened the single to see if there was a photocard but there wasn't sadly so the CD mustn't be First Press. I got an E-Young photocard with the set, I seem to get her card quite a lot. The CD+DVD editions come with the cardboard sleeve which is nice. Most of the singles and albums I received have this sleeve if they are the CD+DVD edition.

CD+DVD MV Edition, CD+DVD Live Edition & CD Only of Bang!

Onto Diva which is the group's second Japanese single. I already own the CD Only version so with the addition of these two CD+DVD editions, I have the complete set now! Lovely plastic sleeves with the original promotional sticker on the CD's. Got two photocards with these CD's, the group one which I already own and E-Young's once again.