Dad's Christmas List!

I've been thinking a lot about Christmas lately. It's just over a month away! Being a Dad, I realize that it's all about the kids and making wishes come true and all that stuff, but this blog isn't about that. Let's put aside all the expensive goodies and toys that the kids want and foucus on the real issue here - what Dad wants for X-mas! Thought I'd list it all out for you, in case you were thinking of getting me something....

(Kind of looks less like a Christmas list and more like a Price is Right Showcase.)

Ford Freestyle

Yeah, that's right. I'm a station wagon-driving dad who wants a new station wagon. Man, do I know how to dream big, or what? But this here Ford is not just any station wagon. No suh. This, my friend, is a Crossover vehicle. Supposedly it crosses over the lines between a station wagon and a sport utility vehicle, with a bit of minivan thrown in. Stylish like an SUV, roomy like a van and fuel efficient like a wagon. In reality, it's more like it crosses over the line between cheap and not so cheap. This sucker is loaded with crazy-cool features, like a V6 engine, sunroof, power windows/locks/mirrors/seats, 3rd row seating, bucket seats in the 1st and second row, DVD player for the kids, roof rack, tons of convertible cargo space, steering wheel mounted audio controls, MP3 capability, CD changer, AWD, traction control, leather seats and oh so much more!

Anyway, point is, this is the rockin'est station wagon on the market, and I want it. I don't think Ford is producing these anymore, so the Freestyle isn't technically 'on the market' anymore, but I see a bunch of used ones around here and there. We are actually in the position to consider buying a new vehicle soon (either one of these, or a van like a Montana or something), so this isn't really a 'Christmas List' type item. But I still want it.

Ibanez BTB Bass Guitar

Everyone who has seen and/or heard it agrees - the bass that I play right now is an utter piece of crap. Pickups are shot, volume and tone controls are crackly and noisy, it's plastered with cheesy old stickers that are all peeling off and there's duct tape holding certain parts of it together. It's way beyond time for a new bass. So, if I have to choose one that plays well and is in my target spending zone, it would be this one on the left.

 I don't want to bother learning to get used to a 5 or 6-string bass, so I'd stick with the traditional 4-string. This model has active pickups, neck-thru-body construction, all natural wood with a natural finish and a comfortable neck and body design with not too much weight to it. Again, it's basically an upgrade like the car would be. Pretty sweet looking instrument though, isn't it?

Puerto Vallarta

No, I don't want to own the entire resort town - but I think I could handle that -  I just want a week in the sun to get away from it all.....to become that drunk, sunburned gringo tourist that lazes around the beach sipping margaritas all day and stuffing himself with all-you-can-eat tacos at some cheesy resort. Remember the fat guy with the farmer tan in Lilo and Stitch that drops his ice cream every time a spaceship flies by? That's me, right there. Only difference is, I would drop my beer. At an all-inclusive resort, I'd just go get another one for free. I need not fear wayward spacecraft nor alien invasion of any sort.

My brother has been there a bunch of times and highly recommends it, and it looks like nice scenery with a lot of fun stuff to do. Even though I'm not really a 'beach' guy, the All-Inclusive Resort thing sounds like a relatively reasonable way to visit an exotic locale and get loaded out of my tree. Of course, I was hoping for this to be a kid-free adventure for Bobbie and I, since we never actually had any sort of honeymoon. I've never been to any sort of tropical destination before, and PV looks like a good Mexico 'starter city' for us.

Comics, Comics, & More Comics

Yes, I already own tons of comics. We all know this. Truth is, though, I don't even own a fraction now of what I did in the late 80's. Right now, I have about 900 in my personal collection. In my mid-teens, I think I was sitting somewhere around 6000. By age 20 I think I sold almost all of my collection for way less money than they were worth, because I needed to make the rent or go drinking or something. By age 28, I was down to zero. Two years ago (age 36) I decided to get into buying and selling on Ebay, and I've managed to accquire all of the comics I currently own in a relatively short amount of time, all the while selling off whatever would make me a decent profit...profit to buy more comics, of course. Some of the titles I'd like to hang on to (at least at this point) are THOR, FANTASTIC FOUR, HULK, AVENGERS and GODZILLA. I've got three-quarters of a long box of THOR right now, and I'm waiting until the movie comes out so I can cash 'em all in for as much as I can. I'm predicting that I'll be able to effectively trade my beloved THOR collection for two weeks in Puerto Vallarta....

Enough about comics. I talk enough about them in other blog entries. They really aren't an X-Mas list item either, since I'm sure I'll end up buying all the ones I want myself anyway.

Action Figures

Yeah, I obviously don't need any more of these either, but they're so freakin' cool! These pictures are of some of the ones I don't have (yet). I've got a bunch of Godzillas, and even a couple of Mechagodzillas (the robot version of Godzilla, for those of you who don't know), but I don't have the versions pictured below - 1976 Godzilla and 1976 Mechagodzilla, respectively.

I'd say I have about two dozen action figures that I actually care about, but surprisingly, I discovered that I don't even own a Darth Vader! I have a keychain version still in the package that's pretty sweet, and even the Hasbro Transformers version that changes into DV's personal TIE Fighter, but no regular old fully-(or even partially-) articulated Darth Vader. This oversight cannot be ignored. How can one claim to be any kind of action figure collector if one doesn't even own a Vader? Shame on me. And shame on you for not buying me one...

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In all seriousness, the above list is not really intended to be any kind of suggestions for gifts for me. I am just contemplating the whole need/want dynamic of my life, and I am actually pretty content with the things I have right now. Christmas is, and always has been for kids, and even though it sounds cheesy, it's true that it's better to give than to receive....

 Except when you're a kid! It's awesome to receive! Let's just consider this post to be yet another moment of my inner kid shining through.

May the Force be with you...

ps. - All of the images in this post are taken from random web searches, and were not photographed by me - the images are property of their respective copyright holders. Please don't sue me.

Marvel Legends - Loki

In keeping with my current obsession with action figures and toys, here is the lowdown on a new figure I just got in the mail. I'm home sick from work today and I need something to write about so I don't end up laying on the couch all day watching Oprah or whatnot. Once again, the photo credit goes to ComicFigs.net , an awesome site that I browse regularly in my search for pointless things to spend my time and money on. If you aren't into comic books or action figures, then you should probably just tune in next time.

Loki

The Norse God of Mischief, God of Evil, the Prince of Lies, adopted son of Odin and brother of Thor, God of Thunder. Contender for the Marvel Universe's Most Cumbersome Headgear award (tied with Galactus). His figure comes with a cool rune-carved sword, though Loki detests physical combat and prefers to use his magic and cunning to battle his foes. The figure looks great, but I wish his cape and Horn Helmet were removeable so he'd be easier to work with in terms of photo shoots. At least they didn't make him look like he did in the 60's and 70's Thor comics, in his bright green form-fitting jumpsuit (still with outrageous horns). Loki is from the Onslaught series of Marvel Legends figurines, in the 6' scale.

He's one of the oldest recurring villains in the Marvel Universe, with a first appearance dating back to 1949, in Venus #6 (a comic I've never even heard of). Since he's an Asgardian God, he's pretty much immortal, and this makes it really easy for the writers to keep using him over and over again. He's been allied with Doctor Doom, Magneto, the Red Skull, the Kingpin and the Mandarin, and has set in motion a great deal of the wrong-doings in Marvel Comics over the past 40 years or so. Many are the evil pies that Loki has his fingers in.

Although he has the powers and stature of a God, Loki is actually the (relatively diminutive) son of Laufey, King of the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. Odin the All-Father slew Laufey and his kin eons ago, and discovered Loki hidden away after the battle. Taking pity on him, Odin decide to raise him as his own, thus making him half-brother to Thor. During childhood, Loki grew increasingly jealous of Thor, and plotted against him pretty much every chance he got. He is responsible for the Lady Sif  losing her golden hair and Thor's Hammer Mjolnir having a shorterned handle. As remarkeable as it sounds, he mated with the giantess Angerboda, who bore him three evil offspring - the Fenris Wolf, Jormungand the Midgard Serpent (a gargantuan snake that encircles the entire world), and Hela (Norse Goddess of Death). These things are pretty irrelevant in the comics, and don't make a lot of sense, but they're based on the actual Norse Mythology. In the comics, Loki is inadvertantly responsible for the formation of the Avengers - the World's Mightiest Heroes. I'm sure he regrets this. Strangely enough, he shows no regret for being father to a bunch of freaky monster-kids.

He doesn't have a magic hammer like his bro, but Loki is perhaps the most powerful sorceror out there. Like Thor, he can travel between worlds and dimensions at will. He is also superhumanly strong and invulnerable, but doesn't like to get his hands dirty. Even though he has tried (and sometimes succeeded) to subjegate and/or destroy Asgard and the Earth countless times, his fellow Asgardian Gods keep him around because he's family. That's not to say that he hasn't been punished, however. He's been imprisoned inside a tree, transformed into a powerless amnesiatic vagrant, been decapitated, had his essence scattered amongst the cosmos, and for his latest transgressions has been turned into a woman. OK, so the last one isn't really a punishment since he/she is still a powerful sorceror/sorceress, and is actually kind of hot in an evil Goth sort of way,  but hey - I don't write this stuff so give me a break. (At this point, we're still waiting for the female Loki action figure to be produced.)

So I guess that's enough about Loki. His above history and description all sounds very Epic in scale, but I'm sure that when I start taking pictures of him, he'll be reduced to riding a stuffed puppy dog and wielding a pink umbrella instead of a sword. Behold! The Norse God of Evil, in all his terrible glory!

Til next time;

May the Force be with you...

More Superhero Fun

Superhero Fun

Marvel Legends - The Collection Begins!

I once stated that this blog would be updated every day. OK, so that wasn't 100% accurate. It's been like a week since the last post, and that's pretty far off of the original estimate. Going in to this thing, I thought: "How hard can it be to jot down a bunch of pointless crap every day?" Turns out  that it's not that easy. Truth is, I feel I've let you down, and I'd like to apologize and try to make it up. Don't get me wrong - it's still going to be pointless crap, but I need to get more of it out there, because the world obviously hungers for more and more pointless crap on a daily basis. So, without further ado, here is today's installment:

A while back, I wrote an article called How to Speak to your Action Figures. As stated there, I have a pretty good selection of toys to work with when doing toy photography. Unfortunately, a lot of them are pretty kiddie-ish, and I want something cooler. I decided that I would turn to Ebay to stock up on my 'cool' figures. Although I have a lot of  Godzilla toys and a handful of Star Wars figs, I needed some superheroes. The Marvel Legends series seems to be the best quality, and is full of tons of characters that I love. Here's what I've got so far (it's a tiny collection, but it'll grow quickly if my Ebay store sales hold out for a while or Santa is good to me.):


The Mighty Thor

He was given to me as a gift by my family. This version is from the "Giant-Man" series. Thor is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic Marvel characters, and one of my personal favorites. The Norse God of Thunder, Defender of Midgard (the Earth), longtime member of the Avengers and an all-around kick-ass long haired dude. With his trusty magic hammer Mjolnir, he can fly, create mystic portals to travel between worlds and dimensions (even through time), call lightning from the sky and thoroughly smite evil wherever evil need be smitten. Sometimes travels in the guise of Donald Blake - a skinny, wimpy doctor with a bum leg who transforms back to Thor by tapping his cane on the ground. Son of Odin, the All-Father and the Earth Goddess, Gaea. Half-brother to the treacherous Loki, God of Mischief. Thor has fought everybody from the Absorbing Man to Zeus and whooped 'em all! Except...

Beta Ray Bill

This horse-faced alien was the first being to best Thor and prove worthy of wielding Mjolnir (Thor's mystic hammer - keep up, will ya?). This explains the matching outfit that Bill wears. The enchantment written on the hammer says that "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR". So, while battling Thor on the surface of an asteroid in deep space (Thor #337 - classic issue!), he knocks Mjolnir out of Thor's hand. Sixty seconds later, Thor turns back into Dr Donald Blake and the hammer turns into Blake's walking stick. Beta Ray Bill picks up the stick and is given an instant Thor-over, cape and all. Turns out he's worthy, since he's defending his race, who are all asleep in Hyperspace or something. Odin transports Bill and Thor back to Asgard and they duke it out (Thor #338). Bill kicks Thor's butt again, and Odin decides to give Mjolnir back to Thor (he's apparently learned humility from the ordeal) and commisions the forging of a new hammer called Stormbreaker, which he gives to Beta Ray Bill to aid in his mission to save his people. From then on, he's pretty much a good guy and pops up repeatedly in Thor comics and even has a thing going with the goddess Sif, Thor's former squeeze (she doesn't seem to mind that he's literally got a face like a horse). Now you know. Although he has kind of a stupid name, he's another of my favorites. I got him from Ebay about a week ago. In the same shipment, I also got:

The Thing (in disguise!)

Ben Grimm, aka - the Ever-Lovin Blue-Eyed Thing. If you've seen the Fantastic Four movie or read any of the 1000+ comics featuring him, you know what he's all about. Experimental rocket-ship, cosmic rays, invulnerable orange rock-like skin, super strong, yadda, yadda... Not as strong as the Hulk, I hear, but he's been around a little longer and doesn't fly into berserker rages (at least not nearly as often). His whole shtick is based on the fact that he's real ugly but has a heart of gold and could rip your head off if he catches you doing something he doesn't like. Also noteable for making wisecracks in the middle of earth-shaking battles and shouting his favorite catch-phrase "it's Clobberin' Time!" just before he lays the smackdown on villains. Although I like this character, I wouldn't say he's one of my favorites. I bought the figure mainly because of his outfit. The trenchcoat, hat and sunglasses are removable and are loaded with comedic possibilities for toy photography. I think I'm going to try the coat on some other figures. I wonder how Godzilla would look with this on? He's from the Fantastic Four boxed set, but I got him seperately.

Anywho, this is just the beginning of my Marvel Legends collection, such as it is. Other figures I'd like to get are Spider-Man, Wolverine, Sasquatch (my favorite Marvel character), Captain America, Guardian (the Canadian answer to Captain America), Silver Surfer (w/Howard the Duck sidekick!) and the Hulk. There's also a cool Ghost Rider figure out there that I want (Series 7), but he's pretty rare and would cost me a lot. He does have a pretty sweet motorcycle though...

I don't think I'll bother buying any of them M.O.C. (mint on card for you laymen out there), since they're way more expensive and I'll just open the packages right away anyway. Loose figures are always  cheaper and easier to get. On the other hand, when you buy them new, you get additional pieces to build other figures, like the right leg of Galactus or the lower torso of Giant-Man. These spare parts can also be available seperately on Ebay too, so I'm not too worried about missing out on those.

I'm looking forward to 'working' with these figures. All of the above pictures were obtained from a site called ComicFigs.net. When I get some more figs (and batteries for my camera), I'll update again. I'm wanting some more of the vintage Star Wars 4" figures too, but alas, that is another tale...

May the Force be with you...

Hallowe'en / Comic Con Weekend

It's been almost a week since my last post. Forgive me, I'm a busy guy. This last weekend (Oct. 30 - Nov. 1) was full of a lot of fun and interesting (and expensive) stuff. There was Boo @ the Zoo on Friday, Central Canada Comic Con (C4) on Saturday afternoon, and of course Halloween on Saturday night. I snapped a lot of pictures along the way, and I've already posted a bunch in Flickr.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Boo at the Zoo, let me explain. Every year in the week leading up to Halloween, the Assiniboine Park Zoo hosts a family event featuring kiddie rides, haunted house type attractions, lots of scary/funny displays and over-priced concessions. You don't see any animals because they're all hiding in their enclosures from the noise and chaos. It's definitely not free, but my wife wouldn't tell me how much we paid for our family to get in, because she knew I'd complain about it. Anyway, Bobbie and the girls dressed up in their costumes, but I went in my civilian garb. It was a lot of fun for the kids, and I did manage to get a handful of good photos. Coolest thing was the fire juggler, and I guess the Haunted House was pretty neat too.

The next day, being a Saturday, we of course had Chloe’s swimming lesson first. She is as strong a swimmer as I’ve ever seen for her age. Her favorite thing to do is to jump in the water. Over, and over, and over again. Who can blame her? Oh – and she lost her first tooth while she was changing after her lesson. Exciting! Way to go, Chloe! The tooth fairy would also visit late that night and left a note and some money for her.

After swimming was the Comic Con. There was a lot of stuff going on there, and lots of cool stuff to look at. Hundreds of people in costumes, literally millions of comics, action figures, t-shirts and toys for sale, neat displays, tabletop gaming demos and tournaments going on, and celebrities to boot! I ran in to a lot of people that I knew, and to those of you who saw me and I didn’t say hi, I’m sorry – I was pretty distracted with all the colors and sounds all around me....

I spent most of our time there looking through the $1/comic bins. Hours – literally. I did manage to snap a far-away pic of Adam West, but I didn’t really see any other celebrities. There were huge lines to see them up close, and they charge for their autographs nowadays, so I steered clear of that area of the con for the most part.

I won’t waste time complaining about the prices of everything, but rest assured that we dropped a lot of cash there and didn’t even do one tenth of the fun things we could have done there. Still, it was a good con!

We headed home for dinner (steak & shrimp stir-fry that I made – and it was awesome!) and got ready for the main event – Halloween! Our pumpkins were lit and ready, the girls all dressed and ready and things pretty much going as planned. Daphne had to wear her backup orange and black Witch costume, since the zipper got broken on her lamb costume at Boo @ the Zoo the night before. She wasn’t very happy about it, either.

The girls went out for Halloween and I stayed home to give out candy to all of 6 or 7 kids that came to our house. At the end of the night, all that was left was to root through the mountain of candy on the floor.

A successful Halloween weekend had come and gone – I got lots of candy, and I didn’t even have to dress up at all!



That’s it for now. Later.

May the Force be with you...