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.)

Miniature World!!

I just realized that I had a whole folder full of great photos tucked away that I haven't shown here. (Ooooh... a whole folder...) I have already uploaded a handful of them to Flickr , and you might have noticed them at the right top corner on the blog; a slideshow of my pics on there. So, technically I'm not presenting them for the very first time here, but whatever. I went to Victoria this last weekend, and was reminded of the coolest thing I've seen in that city - Miniature World!

This is a must-see in Victoria if you're like me, and appreciate things like toys, models, dioramas and anything miniature that makes you feel gigantic... ("When I grow up, I want to be Godzilla!" I think I actually spoke those exact words one day long ago...)

Sadly, I did not get to go there on this trip... but here are some photos from my first (definitely not the last) visit a few months ago.

Obviously I can't take credit for how cool the exhibits are, and I will plead ignorance and innocence if I am infringing on any copyright or anything by posting photographs I took of other people's amazing work.

(BTW - You can click on the photos for a larger view.)

  I have dabbled a bit myself in the construction of miniature 'gaming scale' scenery and buildings and what not, but compared to the displays in Miniature World, I need to go back to kindergarten.

In any case, if you love all the little things in life, you really do need to go to Miniature World in Victoria, British Columbia. Call me up if you want me to go with you.


May the Force be with you...

Crappy Newbie Cell Phone Pictures

For a while back there I was stuck. Stuck out here on Vancouver Island, having recently moved here, all on my own, waiting for my family to get here, just started a new job, living in a rented place and generally being a stranger to everybody I happened upon here (hereupon?) on a daily basis. It was a pretty lonely period, but I thankfully was able to fill my days by indulging a few of my inner passions - exploration and documentation (ie: hiking and/or biking and photography). 

As often as possible, I had my SLR camera gear (Pentax k200d w/ Sigma 24-60 f2.8 and Sigma 70-200 f2.8 lenses) with me and available to shoot at a moment's notice... and as a side note: Pentax SLR System rocks BTW... but every photographer must admit that there are times when you just can't have your full gear with you, like when you go to a movie... or a nightclub... or walk to the bus stop before work.

When you're a newbie in a new land, you can't look like a total dork and carry your photo gear all the time. On the first (or maybe 3rd) day after arrival in British Columbia, I got a cellphone. Not a fancy-ass Smartphone like all you upstart kids got, but an actual walk on the bus and annoy everybody-type phone. I have never cared for cellphones and never saw a need for one until now. I can send and recieve text messasges with it (which I am very slow at - I tend to want to use proper grammar, full words and proper punctuation - sorry), and it has a built-in camera. It has a mind-boggling 1.2 megapixels.

That explains the amazing technical quality of these also otherwise amazing photographs presented here... Born out of necessity in order to illustrate what I think I was trying to say about being on my own in a strange and exciting new place... they are what they are. I guess they're not extremely exciting, but they will, perhaps in time, hold some memories for me... Does that make me a selfish blogger?

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This is the very first photo I took with this mostrosity of an imitation of a camera. I must admit, it has a pretty good High Iso Mode (low light/high sensitivity). Pixellamazation is pretty crappy, but you get what I was going for... In case you're wondering, this was taken in the bar in Victoria right after the Canucks won a hard fought series in round one against the Chicago Blackhawks... and yes, I was very drunk. 

This one was taken from the balcony of my brother's place, where he so kindly let me crash until noon to sleep off the hangover from the night before... Canucks game, bar, beer, etc...

This is a can of beer that I drank after feeling somewhat recovered from said hangover...

This is a bear with a santa hat that my daughter secretly put in my suitcase riding in a monster truck toy that I accquired from the Salvation Army store... It came to me under 'questionable' circumstances... let's leave it at that. 

Here's a really terrible shot of a really cool city - Victoria B.C.

Here's a photo of a really f'n great mexican restaurant here in Courtenay - Tita's Mexican on 6th Street. Just go there - you'll see. 1.2 megapixels could never do proper justice to the amazing lamb enchilada...

Here's a shot of a stump. It's in the middle of the bush just off the train track that runs through town. A cool 'deep woods' locale to relax at. Weirdly, there is only one train track in town and it never gets used - ever. Coming from a place like Transcona, this is just strange - and wrong.

This is a shot of the spot where the Courtenay River meets the Strait of Georgia... or Comox Bay... or is it the Puntledge River, and/or the Salish Sea... or the Tsolum River... or... whatever. Back in Winnipeg, there are exactly two rivers that meet each other, and there is no sea, ocean, strait or nuthin' anywhere around. This is probably a pretty mundane view for the people that live here, but I thought it was cool enough to warrant an emergency cellphone picture.

Driftwood. It seems to be pretty common here.

Another stump.

Not sure what's going on here... looks like a trail of some sort...

In the window of the coolest toy store in Courtenay, Whale's Tale Toys. (Forgive me if I spelled that wrong.)

A church covered in some sort of ivy or some other plant-based material.

The train station that services the train that never runs on a track that is never used...

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Wow. those really are some crappy photos. What's most crappy is that I can't even think of anything worthwhike to say about most of them. Thank goodness I actually have an SLR and can capture the beauty of my surroundings in the way that I can be proud of. But of course, you won't see that here this time 'round. These photos are just crap.

Thanks for putting up with my crap.

May the Force be with you...



Full-color Visual Dump

Obviously, it's time to kick this blog into full swing. I had a peek at the number of posts over the years (okay, so its been barely two), and I have far, far fewer posts this year than last... which was less than the previous year. This cannot stand!

Here we go - a quick and easy post - a few of the latest photos from the newest 'resident tourist' on Vancouver Island. What you see here is only perhaps a tenth of the images that I've shot, but I need to bleed some of the pressure of the backlog of pictures that I've shot here and want to share with you. A visual dump, if you will - in full color and in your face. I guess this sounds nasty, but it's actually quite nice to look at.

Let me stop right here and say something. I like to think of myself as being seriously into photography, and I seriously think I am pretty good at it, but I don't think any single one of us out there should take ourselves too seriously. I know the above 'joke' about 'dump in your face' didn't go right above your heads. C'mon, I mean, you wanna be hip, right? You all saw Team America:World Police and South Park:Bigger, Longer and Uncut - right? Anyway, it's a joke - calm down.


Hope you like mountains, trees and water... cuz I do. So here's some more. If you've seen any of these before, good for you - I will not apologize for double-posting my own images, since people all around the world are probably stealing them anyway...

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Here's a few parting thoughts for the day -

-My hit counter for Alliance of One is currently 3333. Bitchin'. That's a cool number, and I still can't believe that so many people have looked at my s**t. I'm sure most of them were Google Image searchers who've never actually bothered to read the actual blog, but still...

-I haven't photographed an action figure in about three months. That's significant to me, and it shows that I'm recovering well and am showing fewer signs of withdrawal. (Seriously, though, there's more than enough outdoors to look at on Van Isle to make me not want to stay inside and hunch over the table posing a bunch of little plastic men indoors.) Rest assured however, my brain waves will be resonating on that frequency soon... (Stay Tuned!)

-I am a lucky, lucky man. I am living in the place where I've wanted to live for the last ten years - a place where I feel I belong. I also have an amazing family that I love very dearly, and great friends that have made me feel welcome here in my island paradise. Thanks everyone!

May the Force be with you...