A Day in the Life of Jean-Luc Picard

Blatantly Subliminal Advertising

(Buy comics! They're great!)

That time has come again - time to unload some comics, games, toys and other cool stuff. Just so you know in advance, this post is cleverly designed to subliminally persuade you to buy my comics and action figures at the upcoming Victoria's Ultimate Hobby and Toy Fair , April 1st @ the Pearkes Arena in Victoria BC, presented by Cherry Bomb Toys. I'm afraid resistance is futile against this particular Jedi mind trick.

(Cherry Bomb Toys is awesome!)

Rebel Alliance Canada lives again!! In case you haven't figured it out - Rebel Alliance Canada is pretty much just me - Andy. An 'Alliance of One', as it were.

(Andy of Rebel Alliance Canada is the coolest guy you will ever meet.)

I had the pleasure of selling at the last toy show in Victoria in  September, and this time around promises to be even better! It turns out that selling comics and stuff and going to conventions is just as much fun here on Vancouver Island as it was in Winnipeg. The faces may have changed, but there seems to be no shortage of sci-fi/comic geeks like myself out here. In fact, some of y'all put me to shame! Anyone reading this that is not able to make it to the show for geographical reasons (because you're like, in Winnipeg or the UK or something), I can forgive you. For those of you who live on Vancouver Island, you'd better have a damn good excuse for not being there!

(You want to buy as many toys and comics as you can... from Rebel Alliance Canada...)

In any case, here's a small sampling of some of the stuff that will be for sale at the show. After the show, whatever is left over is likely to end up on ebay, and I'm sure I'll let you know about that too...

(You want to buy every item on this page - from me.)

 Let's see... I've got some Silver Age DC's...

(Although not nearly as cool as Marvel Comics, DC Comics are still pretty bitchin'.)

I have a schwack-load of Savage Sword of Conan magazines...
(Conan is awesome - even nailed to a tree, he's still awesome. You wish you could be Conan.)

 

(Alliance of One is the best blog you have ever read.)

 

The Tantive IV

(You are a true Star Wars fan... you know what the Tantive IV is. You don't have one yet.)

  Godzillas to spare...

(Godzilla is the coolest rubber monster to ever walk the earth... You love Godzilla.)

 Tons of carded SW figs

(You will never have enough Star Wars figures - you need multiples of your favorites)

 

(He-Man Rules!)

 

 (You need a Pinnochio figure to complete your Shrek collection.)

 

(No price is too high to pay for your very own Captain Picard figure...)

 A staggering amount of loose figures... including but not limited to Marvel Legends, MacFarlane Toys, Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Muppets, Star Trek, McDonald's Happy Meal toys, etc, etc... 

(You wish you owned every McDonalds Happy Meal toy from every movie you've ever liked. You will buy them at the Toy Fair. From me.)

Over 1000 great comics - Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image and more - Silver Age to Current - tons of blowout $1 comics...
(Rebel Alliance Canada has the best comics at the best prices anywhere. Marvel is still better than DC.)

Heroclix figures at $1 a pop...
(You want to play Heroclix - with figures you will buy from me.)

More Conan magazines and comics... I have so much Conan stuff right now that I think I'll be remembered as 'the Conan Guy'.
(You will bring a bag large enough to hold the 20+ lbs of awesome comics and toys you will buy from Rebel Alliance Canada. You especially love Conan the Barbarian.)

 I will have prints of my homemade comic Everyday Heroes for sale - autographed for free if you like...
(Everyday Heroes is the awesomest of all the awesome things available from Rebel Alliance Canada.)

But of course, there's lots of comics of all kinds... and toys of all kinds.
(The Avengers is coming to theaters very soon. You need to stock up on Avengers, Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America comics so you'll know what's going on. You will purchase said comics from me.)

Instead of my listing everything for you, I think you'd get a better idea of what you can find available from Rebel Alliance Canada when you arrive at my table in the Pearkes Arena, April 1st at Victoria's Ultimate Hobby & Toy Fair.

(Ultimate Hobby & Toy Fair April 1st in Victoria. No moment in your life will ever be better than this day.)

You are coming, right? The hypnosis should have kicked in by now... 

May the Force be with you... 

(Sucker.)

STAR WARS MINIATURES GAME - My collection for SALE!!

Just to give y'all a heads up if you're into this type of thing - 

 I just listed a HUGE lot of Star Wars Miniatures on EBay. I've decided to keep only the complete Rebel Storm set, as it was the first set released and the first set I completed, but...

 everything else must go!! 

 It's hard to let go of my beloved collection of so many,so very cool little plastic men (and women ...and wookiees and droids of course), but in all honesty, I could certainly use the money a lot more than the minis...

(Sorry about the crappy photos...I didn't have a lot of time to do this...)

I thought that, rather than milk it forever and try to sell off the figures seperately or in smaller lots, why not just put them all together in one massive lot. Being as hardcore into this game as I have been over the years, it'll make it less painful for me as well, I suppose, if I just get rid of them all at once and quit cold turkey....

In all, there are over a thousand miniatures in this one-time-only auction, plus a great collection of maps, rulebooks, counters and promo items. I've played games with almost all of them, but there are a good number of these minis that have never seen the light of day...  So yes, they are used, but no, they are not abused. There's a good number of Very Rares and a ton of Rare figures in there, plus legions of Stormtroopers, gangs of Gungans, clusters of Clones, regiments of Rebels, tons of Tuskens and at least enough scum and villainy to fill several wretched hives to capacity...

Instant armies at your disposal...

 

 

To the best of my knowledge, all stat cards for all figures are included, although there may be, like 12 Stormtroopers and only 11 Stormtrooper cards or something like that...but Stormies are all the same, right? There definitely would never be any unique characters that are missing cards. I've taken good care of my little plastic men over the years.

So anyway, if you're interested in my (ex-)collection, have a look at the auction here:

GIGANTIC Star Wars Lot - EBay.ca

 

If you have any questions about this auction, you can contact me through EBay or through email or this blog or whatever works. BTW, even though the auction says shipping only to US/Canada, I could possibly ship to other countries as well, but it's going to get expensive...we're talkin' 25lbs of little plastic men here, for the love of Yoda...

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Thanks for taking a look, even if you don't care about Star Wars Miniatures at all. At least this gives you some idea where all my time and money has gone over the last 6 years....well, this and comic books...

Thanks again for listening.

May the Force be with you...

Comic Con / Halloween 2010





First off, I want to do a big shout out to all the folks who helped make this year's Comic Con a huge success for a small-time guy like me. I sold a lot of comics and figures, and I passed out a ton of business cards. (Also a gigantic Thank You with hugs n' kisses to my wife for helping me out)

It seems kind of silly of me to direct so many folks to this blog lately, and not have any new content for like 2 weeks...... Suddenly, for someone who normally can't seem to ever shut up, my communication skills don't seem to be all that hot. Truth is, I am burnt out beyond belief, especially when it comes to comics, action figures and other sci-fi/pop culture-type stuff. It seems like all I've been doing lately is organizing, pricing, transporting and handling comic books, games and toys. I never thought I'd say this, but I don't even want to look at another comic right now. (Maybe after a few days off from my real job...)

As I'm sure you gathered from all that shameless self-promotion (or 'SSP') in my previous posts, I spent this past Halloween weekend as a vendor at the Central Canada Comic Con here in Winnipeg. It was a great time, and I sold a lot more stuff than I'd expected to. Met a lot of cool people there too. I'm hoping that some of you out there who are reading this ran into me at the convention. If that's the case, and you're new 'round these here parts, welcome to ALLIANCE of ONE, the official blog of Rebel Alliance Canada! Hope I don't waste your time.....

There has been some other great stuff happening too. My daughters had a fantastic Halloween (or so I am told - I was too busy with the comic con to actually do any trick or treating with them). Daphne was the cutest little Ballerina and Chloe went as the Corpse Bride (from the movie of the same name). They must have done pretty well, since there were two gigantic bowls full of candy on the kitchen counter when I got home that night....

Also, we just recently got a new cat - a little grey and white kitten named Momo. She's still pretty shy around people, but she's really gotten attached to our other cat Pepper in the last two weeks. She can't seem to leave him alone, and even though he pretends that he doesn't like her, you can tell he loves the companionship (just like a typical male, right ladies?). It's been almost exactly a year since we got Pepper. If the current trend continues, by Halloween 2018 we should have 10 cats and be running our own comic con....

I also just purchased a brand new laptop, and I love it! I'm hoping it's going to inspire me to blog more, and hopefully it'll allow me to work 'on the go', even though I don't really ever go anywhere.... Main reason I got it was simply to have a better, faster computer that I can edit photos and play games on, and also use as a portable digital portfolio. It's taking me a while to get used to the smaller keyboard and the pointing device, but at the rate I'm using my laptop in the two days since I got it, I'll have mastered it in a week or two.

If you met me at the comic con and are looking for more info on the things I sell, I'm sorry you had to read this far and hear all about my personal life when all you are looking for is some more cool stuff to buy. In the future, I'm hoping to sell items directly through this blog, but for now I'm limited to my EBay store, which is actually pretty barren right now since I was saving everything for the con and have yet to get a chance to list what I've got left (see 'Essential Links' in the upper right hand corner of this blog). Any items or photos seen on this blog can be purchased locally from me as well. Email me for details ( andonator2000@yahoo.ca ). Watch out for some Kijiji ads maybe too....

As always, thanks for spending the time to read this blog. I promise I'll be back with some actual fun stuff soon.

May the Force be with you...

Star Wars Minis

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STAR WARS

Miniatures

I have always loved this game, ever since it's debut in Fall 2004. I pre-ordered my Rebel Storm Starter Set , picked it up on the day it came in to the store, and have been playing it ever since. I once told my wife that when I die I want to be buried with my SWM collection. I'm going to stand by that. I have an insanely gargantuan amount of these addictively collectible 'little plastic men'. It's gotten to the point where I almost need a hand truck to move my collection from one place to another.....and I know some people who have twice the number of figures I do. Some refer to collectible miniatures games as 'plastic crack'....

Now, this isn't really like Dungeons & Dragons or any other RPG , but it takes the best parts of that game - simplified d20 combat and cool-looking miniature playing pieces - and adapts it to an easy-to-learn and fast-playing tabletop strategy game with a Star Wars theme. There's no story to it... just attack and kill your opponent. I suppose you could try to relive classic battles from the movies and stuff, but you certainly don't have to. (There's nothing funnier than Darth Vader vs Ewoks........ )  Let's just say this: it's the closest thing to playing with toys that I can still get away with at age 39. I guess my photography comes pretty close too...

Anyway, I'll have tons of Star Wars Miniatures (all rarites and almost all sets) for sale at the Central Canada Comic Con , as well as on Ebay.

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I just noticed that this would be my anniversary post - it's been exactly one year since I created this blog. I'm pretty happy with it so far. I think it's gotten better, and I certainly hope that you, the reader, have had a chuckle or two, or raised an eyebrow and gone "hmm..." in a thoughtful manner...

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog. Unfortunately, I'll never be able to pay back all of the minutes of your life I've taken away from you....unless I can finally finish building my flux capacitor someday.  

May the Force be with you...

The Real Life of Action Figures - October 2010

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Why Darth Vader never gets a date...

"Inform Lord Vader we have a prisoner"



That was the end of that friendship....

"Yo, Stan Baby! Talk to me! How's that movie coming along?"

"...and you all have a super power too! It's called ' IMAAAGINAATION!!'..."

It was that 'get a haircut' crack that really pissed Thor off....

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May the Force be with you...



Join the Rebel Alliance!

So you'd think by now that I'm all ready and rarin' to go for the upcoming (and oft-mentioned) C4 Convention  to be held at the Winnipeg Convention Centre, Friday Oct. 29th - Sunday Oct. 31st 2010.

Well, turns out I`m not quite ready. I assume that I will be by that time, but at the moment, I`m just trying to get all the little details together for the con .... business cards, signage, flyers, price tags, displays, etc... Although I will have a relatively modest stock of items compared to some of the other vendors that will be there, I do intend to sell a lot of comics and figures as well as reveal to the general public some of my favorite examples of my own personal photography, partcularly that which falls within the realm of Sci-Fi & Fantasy (check out my pics on this blog and in my Flickr Account ).

Anyway, although I consider myself to be the founder, CEO and dare I say Admiral of Rebel Alliance Canada , it is still..... an Alliance of One. Me. (Cool how that all fits together, eh!)

I believe it is time to recruit,....


There has been a great disturbance in the Force...our scanners indicate that the Winnipeg system has long been devoid of intelligent lifeforms...or at least it could use a lot more people who appreciate the finer forms of entertainment -  like comic books, Sci-Fi , Anime, Fantasy and the like... Not to say that us fans aren`t out there....but we need our voice to be heard....


That`s where YOU come in.


So you may say to yourself :
``I can't get involved! I've got work to do! It's not that I like the Empire, I hate it, but there's nothing I can do about it right now.``

To that, I say :
``Well, that`s your Uncle talking. You must do what you feel is right, of course...``


To make a long (Episodes I-VI) story short:
 ``I need your help, (insert your name here).  She needs your help. I'm getting too old for this sort of thing....``



Okay, so I`m not really too old for this sort of thing...the Comic Book Guy on Simpsons might be older than me...but I do genuinely need help....

Rebel Alliance Canada will be making its public debut at Winnipeg Comic Con 2010, but after that titanic event, the struggle will continue. The reason I named this venture as I did was because I happen to know a lot of hugely creative, talented and cool people (yeah, you know who you are), and I`ve always had the crazy notion that if we could all just work together to market our imaginative powers we`d be millionaires..... or at the least make a few bucks on the side with a little effort. I intend to return to the Comic Con next year, as well as to continue selling on Ebay (and other possible sources) all year round. Yes, right now, the business primarily sells my own art and comic books, but I`m looking to go beyond that and help you sell your stuff and vice-versa. If you`ve got some of your own artwork you`d like to sell or some of your collection of comics or action figures that you`d like to unload, I may be able to help you with this. Space permitting, I can try to promote or sell just about anything you want, as long as it`s legal, in good taste and somehow sci-fi,comic or pop culture related.

If you are interested in this proposal, please contact me via email or leave me a comment on the blog. (I`ll be putting up a Facebook page soon, so stay tuned for more linky goodness with that too) With your help, the Alliance will grow stronger.



``Help me (insert your name here)..... you`re my only hope...``


*** p.s. ***

Although I know that some folks in other countries have seen my blog (Thank You, Denmark!!), I`m afraid that I can only extend my offer of allegiance to those in the immediate vicinity at this time. That being said, if you are nowhere near Winnipeg, please don`t go away! Keep checking back for updates & photos to see how things develop. Take heart! It`s only a matter of time before
the Alliance brings the Good Fight to your territory!

As always,

May the Force be with you...

The Pretty Good, the Not Bad and the WTF??

For the last couple weeks, I've been on somewhat of a movie bender. I'd love to tell you about all of the films I've seen, but the list just keeps getting longer and longer. In an effort to stem the tide, here's some recent highlights. (Someday, I'll catch up...)

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Superman/Batman - Public Enemies (2010)

No, it's not 'Superman/Batman vs Public Enemy'....that would just be too awesome for human eyes. I'll bet Chuck D and Flava Flav would give Clark and Bruce a good run for their money...

Seriously, this is another well-written and action-packed full-length animated feature from Warner Bros and DC Comics (adapted straight from the comic books, no less). It doesn't really give you any new insight on either Batman or Superman, but it does shed a little light on the relationship these two have, having worked together on about seven thousand different cases. It's what you'd call a 'Buddy Superhero' movie...like a buddy cop movie, but without the crude childish humor, and everyone is ultra-buff and wears spandex 24/7.

The story is this: Lex Luthor (yes, him again) manages to get himself elected as President, and makes 'Meta Humans' (ie: superheroes) like the Justice League into a government-controlled agency. This in itself sounds a little too much like Marvel Comics' far superior Civil War storyline, but I'll buy into it. Superman and Batman refuse to work with Luthor, so Lex frames Supes for the murder of Metallo (one of the more powerful villains in DC, I think) who was supposed to have 'gone legit'. There's a billion dollar bounty on Superman's head, and every villain and hero in the world wants to collect that paycheck.

It's exciting stuff and an interesting story if you can keep up with all the betrayals and redemptions and the abundance of super powered pugulism going on. Even though Batman is one of the main characters in it, don't expect your usual Dark Knight type storyline here. This film shows how truly amazing it is that the

B-Man can run with the big boys and give em a good fight, and not just swoop down out of the dark upon unsuspecting purse-snatchers.

This one is probably for comic book fans only. I couldn't get my wife to watch this in a million years. Poor woman doesn't even know what she's missing....

A-

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Freaky Friday (2003)

Obviously, I didn't pick this one out myself. This was picked by my 6 year-old daughter for 'family movie night'. Having never seen anything starring Lindsay Lohan before, I guess I had a morbid curiosity about her. I wanted to see if she really was 'all that' (Do people still say that?). Well anyway, she ain't.... I never cared much for Jamie Lee Curtis either, for that matter. She's just a little too 'man-ish' for my tastes.

All my prejudices aside however, this wasn't that awful. I like the concept of the movie - the whole switching bodies and seeing-life-through-the-eyes-of-another thing. There were a good number of funny moments too, such as Jamie Lee with a 15 year-old brain driving 80 miles an hour everywhere she goes, or Lindsay with a 40 year-old mind trying to pretend she knows how to play guitar at the all-too-familiar 'Battle of the Bands' scene near the end.

Sappy ending, lots of cheesy chick-punk rock songs, dramatic twist at the end of Act II, the hard-of-hearing grandpa, the stuck-up cheerleader rival girl and of course the quirky smart-alec little brother - these are all key ingredients to be found in just about every bit of so-called 'entertainment' oozing from Disney these days. Unoriginal, predictable and squeaky-clean pseudo-rebellious themes are what made this American Movie Dynasty, and they are not about to stop now.

I guess I can try to open my eyes to the views of others and say that, although I would have rather been sleeping, it was worth watching it and having a laugh with my kids. It could have been far, far worse.

C

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Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode 2

Don't know what can be said about this....if you like Star Wars, you've got to find this at least slightly amusing, if not drop-dead hilarious. Personally, I love Star Wars (duh) and I love Robot Chicken, even if they go a little overboard sometimes. That being said, it's not quite as funny as Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode 1. Seth MacFarlane's Emporer Palpatine is really annoying in this one and hogs a lot of screen time. He's played in the same arrogant, insulting vein as Stewie from Family Guy - a show and character I personally could really do without ..... and I'm getting pretty sick of the R.C. version of Boba Fett....It gets a little tiresome just watching Star Wars characters walk around saying 'F#@* You' to each other all the time. Luckily it's not all just like this. 

There are some genuinely hilarious parts in it, like the AT-AT drag race, the bounty hunters, the Geonosis Arena Monster Truck Rally-style TV ad, and Gary the Stormtrooper's 'take your daughter to work day'..... I laughed so hard that I almost messed myself when Darth Vader strangles the Rebel Officer and says "It's because of people like YOU that Gary never gets to see his daughter!!!"

It was also nice to hear some of the the actual voices of the original Star Wars cast again - this time around they got Carrie Fisher and Billy Dee Williams, and even though their parts weren't really that funny, it was a nice bit of nostalgia. So yeah, not as good as the first one, but definitely better than the two Family Guy: Star Wars piece of crap parodies.

B+

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Battlestar Galactica (Season One - Disc One)

This doesn't really qualify as a 'movie' review, per se, but I did rent it on video recently and I've got an opinion on it, so you're going to have to suffer through it - too bad. :p   I don't know if this whole disc was just the Mini-series Pilot or if there were some other episodes tacked on after it or what....honestly, I just don't give a frack. I don't care if I ever see the rest of the series.

The original series, as 'cheesy 70's TV show' as it was, was pretty cool - definitely the coolest thing on TV at the time as I recall. The characters were good, the robot bad guys looked cool, and the spaceship battles were neat. I was pretty skeptical going in to watching the new version, because it seems to me that it came out at a time when all of the network and cable channels were overflowing with new sci-fi shows, none of which were really any good if you ask me. Star Trek - Enterprise? C'mon, are you shittin' me? The only good (or at least truly original) sci-fi  series that came out around this time was Firefly. I ignored a lot of friends' advice to watch Battlestar - people whose opinions I normally trust.

Ehhhhh....turns out I was right..... I know it's called a 're-imagining' of the story, but I didn't care for some of the changes they made....I mean, Starbuck - a chick? WTF?? Colonel Tye a drunk? Okay, that was cool.....but what's with the 'mysterious' been-there-done-that body switching 'who's the bad guy?'-type menace from these new Cylons? Lame. Body Snatchers, the Matrix, Sky Net and Replicants people....we've all seen all of this before. Suddenly Cylons aren't Cylons anymore! At least they're not your father's Cylons....

This is a true Cylon (maybe not 'true', but you know what I mean):

This is NOT a Cylon IMO:

This is just an excuse to stick some hot evil chick in a red dress into a sci-fi show to sucker in more teenaged boys and female viewers; the latter because it makes the show 'more sexy' and shows a powerful female character, and the former just because it's a blonde chick in a red dress ('nuff said). Add this to a rich, complex sci-fi backstory (which was already written by someone else - all you have to do is f**k with  it) and throw in an equally strong older female character (Madame President Whatserface), and you've got an instant hit amongst men and women, old and young alike. Too bad it's boring as hell to watch, except for when there are spaceships or robots on screen, and there wasn't enough of that to keep me going. I guess the actors are passable for a weekly series, but with the exception of a few, they're all turning out pretty Young and the Restless caliber performances.

I honestly don't know why my friends or anyone else thought this was cool.

Boo.

I still can't believe that they perverted my childhood memories of the mighty Starbuck and made him into some ugly butch chick.

D+

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That's it for today, and that's plenty of movies for awhile. Got some comics to catch up on too, so don't go too far, because those are coming up soon!

....Hey wait! No! Promise you'll come back!!!.........please?.....

May the Force be with you...

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