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100 Asian Stamps

Thursday, April 7th, 2022

Bernard sent me this for my birthday:

It’s an envelope containing 100 ‘Asien‘ stamps. Where did he get it? I don’t know, but whoever packed it was obviously German. Would it contain mostly CTOs or Cinderellas, or just loads of Indian stamps from the colonial days? And could 100 stamps really fit in this tiny envelope (about 1.5 x 2 inches)?

He requested a blog post on the contents, so here we go:

There were 5 Thai stamps, all depicting King Bhumibol Adulyadej who reigned for an astonishing 70 years until 2016. Many stamps featuring his likeness were issued and these seem to be from the 1970s.

The 3 Hong Kong stamps are unremarkable, and would (I assume) all predate 1984 when partial control was given to China. The queens portrait did feature on stamps after that date, but they were more colorful than these.

The 8 Vietnamese stamps seem to date from the late 70s through mid 80s are an interesting mix of nationalistic and historical topics. Some of these stamps are on very thin paper – almost like tissue. I like the designs and printing of these, especially considering they’re 30+ years old.

The 25 Indian stamps are typical of others I’ve seen from this country: small, detailed, and often showing traditional art or Gandhi. The family planning stamp at top right is interesting: I wonder if India attempted population control when this was issued in the 1970s? If so, it failed 🙂

3 Ceylon stamps (pre 1972) and 1 Sri Lanka stamp and none of them show tea! I wonder what language these are written in?

From the above 2 Nepali stamps I learned that 1975 was a ‘south Asia tourist year’. Imagine what it must have been like traveling to Nepal in 1975? The word ‘remote’ comes to mind.

Here we have 5 Bangladeshi stamps. Do you know where Bangladesh is without looking at a map? I think most westerners don’t, but will learn in the next few decades since Bangladesh is on the critical list of countries threatened by sea level rise. Some of the structures on these stamps may in time be in the ocean.

There were only 3 Korean stamps in the envelope and they’re all undated. According to what I found online, the stamp on the right is a Vietnam war memorial stamp issued in 1967 to support war veterans. I never knew Korea sent troops to Vietnam to fight with the USA!

As usual the 6 North Korean stamps are unused CTOs and almost certainly never intended for actual postage. I like the farm animals though 🙂

The 18 Pakistani stamps are superficially similar to the Indian ones, but overall bigger, more detailed and featuring a wider assortment of themes. One of them even contains some gold ink! The ‘service’ overprint visible on some of these denotes that the stamp was designated for use by a government department and not to be sold or used by civilians.

I’m fairly sure these 6 Mongolian stamps are also CTOs. Despite the postmarks they are unused and easily the largest ones in the envelope. The imagery is very Chinese isn’t it?

These 8 Japanese stamps are typical of the ones in the all-Nippon envelope I opened a year or so ago. When can I return to Japan and send you all some Japanese stamps?!?

And lastly we have 6 Israeli stamps. This is a strange inclusion, since Israel is over 4000 km from Asia, so I’ll assume whoever put this envelope together thought the Hebrew text was an Asian language? The five in the right all say ‘shekel’ (the Israeli currency unit) and were issued in 1981. All of these stamps are unused.

So there we go: 99 stamps from 13 countries. While none were repeated (I think, maybe I missed one or two) it looks like the label on the packet was a lie. And not a single Chinese stamp?!

Posted in Art, Blog, Collecting, Otaku, Stamps | 1 Comment »

The Land Collection

Sunday, March 13th, 2022

In the card game Magic: The Gathering (MTG) land cards provide the resources to play other cards. They’re ubiquitous and in the eyes of many players, boring. They are like the batteries in the toy: essential but often taken for granted.

The simplest type of land is called ‘basic land’. There are five of them – one for each colour – and they’ve been around since MTG launched back in 1993. And since I got back into Magic about 15 years ago I’ve collected them!

Its always been an informal collection: I just liked the art on them and made a point to keep one of each aside. In time I put them in a binder, and started seeking one ones I didn’t yet have. Over the years the binder grew and grew until it got almost too heavy to pick up, and a change was needed. These past few weeks I’ve sorted all my lands, sleeved and boxed them and had a good look at them all. This post shows off some of the collection.

The above are examples of some of the oldest and newest land cards I have. On the left we have a ‘beta’ card from 1993 and on the right an example from the latest set Kamigawa: Neon Destiny. It’s obvious how the design has updated on the nearly 30 years between them, but it’s notable that these two cards are identical as far as gameplay is concerned.

The above shows the progression of design of a Forest land from 1993 until 2020. You can see the various phases the basic design transitioned through, including the removal of the text describing how to use the card, which occurred relatively early on in the history of the game.

Here we have an assortment of promotional cards, most of which are foiled so they shine with a rainbow effect. These cards are obtained via in-store promotions or by attending events or – as with most of these – by buying them on the secondary market. None of these cost me more than a dollar or so, but some are worth five or ten times that now.

The above shows examples of non-English lands. MTG has been printed in 11 languages and I have lands in most of them (I think). The middle top card is an unusual exception: this is swamp printed in ‘phyrexian’ which is a (fake) language in the MTG universe.

Speaking of events, the above were all given to me by Adam, and are signed cards that he obtained from the artists at various events he attended. The middle one is heavily ‘altered’, which means the artist drew over the art with paint pens, leaving only the name of the card visible. For most of these artists, I have several different signed lands.

Here’s a unique inclusion: the ‘Florence lands‘! She decorated five lands with stickers many years ago and gave them to me as a gift. For all this time they had been the first page in the binder introducing the collection, and they remain an important and unique part of it. I wonder if she remembers making them?

In 1998, when MTG was five years old, an important and notable thing happened with land cards. In the set Unglued the first ‘full art’ land cards were printed. They dispensed with the text box at the bottom to fill the card with art and were very popular. Subsequent sets would rarely include new full art lands. The above shows examples from Unglued to Amonkhet (in 2017).

Full art lands have become more common in recent years, and the above five examples span less than three years of sets. Some think the island shown above (from Unstable) is the prettiest land card ever printed.

Some more basic lands. I’m a big fan of the black and white versions from the recent Innistrad sets, but many weren’t.

The above are five of the ten full art lands from the recent Kamigawa set. These are done in the Japanese ukiyo-e style and are some of the more unusual (and pretty!) lands MTG has ever printed.

Following on from the above is an unusual addition: these are unofficial ‘proxy’ cards made by fans. I got these on Etsy and they are another ukiyo-e inspired set done by a Japanese artist. The quality of these cards is incredibly high, and they’re almost indistinguishable from a real Magic card. (I’m amazed Hasbro hasn’t shut down people selling high quality proxies…)

The above show some of the more unusual and ‘rare’ lands I currently own. These are all from a type of release called ‘secret lairs’, which are very limited cards sold exclusively online. Unfortunately some of the lairs have contained lands, and since I believe they’re overpriced I’ll likely never obtain most of them. However I couldn’t resist buying a few examples on the secondary market. The top left is a ‘godzilla plains’ and the bottom right from a release that went overboard reverse-parodying the full art design motif.

Speaking of rare, a number of my lands have become very collectible. I have many ‘beta’ land cards, and those are worth $10 or more each today, and as I mentioned above some of my promo lands have appreciated a lot in recent years. But the biggest surprise as I was going through my collection was the current value of the so-called ‘APAC lands’.

These were a set of 15 land cards given to customers by game stores in the Asia-pacific region in 1998. I bought a full set many years ago for not much money (I think about $30) and they’ve massively appreciated since. The two above are worth about $150 each, and may be my most valuable magic cards! (I didn’t know this until a few days ago.)

There’s the whole collection. I don’t know exactly how many I have, but it’s more than 1500. I read recently that there’s been over 2200 unique land cards, so I’m missing a great deal, but I suspect most of them are promos or otherwise-unattainable releases like the European equivalents to the APAC lands.

In all these cards you’re probably wondering, which is my favourite? That’s an easy question, and the answer never changes. It’s this APAC plains, which shows Australia:

MTG is more successful than ever, and the set frequency seems to have increased, with each set bringing more basic lands. It’s a cheap card type to collect, since most players don’t care about the lands at all, so I’m not stopping any time soon. I’ll end this post with some examples of lands releasing in the remainder of 2022. If I ever update this post, you can assume I’ve got (some of) these as well:

Posted in Art, Blog, Collecting, Games, Miscellaneous, MTG, Otaku, Retro, Time, Trading Cards | Comments Closed

A Few Unusual Things

Sunday, March 6th, 2022

I had a birthday recently, and got a lot of weird and wonderful stuff. Here’s a few of them…

KLS gave me an electronic card, that plays Happy Birthday and then lets you blow out the candle (yes you blow on the card) to trigger a jumping game! It’s smaller than a credit card and very unique.

This dispenser creates a cat paw pattern using foam soap! It works very well, and the soap from this Japanese item is denser than what we get here in America. I reckon this basic idea will be the first of many of its kind…

This is a set of neon/metallic watercolour paint samples, and I’ve showed what they look like on the right. The glitter ones are extremely cool, but apparently look best on black paper. I wonder if I can use these in the ongoing postcard contest?

This sculpture of a one-eyed raven – possibly one of Odin’s ravens – is made of resin, quite heavy and mounts on the wall. We have a few items like this, and he’ll find a welcome home on our walls. KLS purchased this directly from the artist, and mine is #139 of 300 🙂

The above is a set of stamp sheets depicting American wildlife. They were printed one per year between 1998 and 2009, and Bernard gave me the full set!

The artwork on these is fantastic, and they are printed in such a way that it’s not immediately obvious they contain actual stamps! I’ll never use these; they’re certainly ‘for the collection’ 🙂

And lastly another piece of art: a miniature giraffe sculpture! This is also made of resin, and is hand painted. It’s incredibly tiny: that’s my fingertip on the left and a normal size LEGO minifig on the right. I need to find some sort of mini display case to put him in since he’s so weightless he may just drift off on the wind one day!

As I said this is just a selection of what I received for my birthday. The ‘usual stuff’ (model kits, LEGO, trading cards etc.) will eventually get their own posts right here on this very blog!

Posted in Animals, Art, Blog, Collecting, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Stamps, Tech | Comments Closed

Animal Contest: Halftime!

Tuesday, March 1st, 2022

A new year meant a new postcard contest, where the worlds most amateur artists would once again render a selection of topics and have them judged. Things were mixed up this time, and the rules were as follows:

The subjects are all animals
We would paint each using watercolors
There are twelve animals in total: Five judges pick two each, and mum picks the first and last

Six are done and the judging is complete. Let’s see the standing at the halfway point…

Panda

Mum’s first pick was a real surprise, but I won’t say what I thought she’d pick since she’s got one more coming. The watercolor nature of the contest immediately made it more difficult than the portraits! We’re both using watercolor pencils, and in the early weeks I drew a pencil drawing then wet it to achieve the paint effect, which meant detail was extremely difficult. However… Bernard ignored the rules and didn’t even create a watercolor!

Mine (on the right) was given the win by the judges with a score of 4.7-0.3 (Bernard got a tiny nod due to cuteness).

Here’s a comment from one judge about mine:
“Movement and emotion are conveyed and one can almost hear the panda munching away on his bamboo.”

Eagle

Mine is on the right and Bernard’s on the left and once again (sigh) we see he failed to add water and therefore didn’t create an actual watercolor. He feigned ignorance of the rules at this point, but it was clear he was exploiting the fact the judges themselves were ignoring the rules since he won this one 3-2. One judge even said “Left doesn’t look like an eagle but it has more detail so it gets my vote“! Imagine that: giving your vote to the non-watercolor that doesn’t even look like the topic!

It was at this point that the truth of this contest was becoming clear: the judges are inscrutable and whimsy and emotion factors as much into their decisions as artistic merit. This would have to be carefully considered by the artists…

Betta (Siamese Fighting Fish)

A salute to the judge that picked this, since it allowed liberal use of color! The strong difference between each approach made this a harder choice for the judges. Ultimately Bernard (on the right) won 3-2 but I sensed it was very close.

Some judges comments:
“Left is the first one that actually looks like a watercolor“
“Right looks like a goldfish!”
“Right is more three-dimensional with a beautiful impression of fluidity“

Incidentally I was very happy with the shading on my fish (the light spot on the upper back), which wasn’t easy for me to obtain. I don’t think any judges noticed it 🙂

Cute Domestic Housecat

This one was unusual since the judge added a condition: cuteness was key, and an image of a plain cat would be valued less than a cute cat. No judge had done this previously (or since), but as artists both B and I accepted the condition without comment. I took it very seriously and my creation is on the right, with Bernard’s on the left. Which one is cuter?

Ultimately the win was mine 3-2, but three judges split their votes, with the biggest being 0.3/0.7! Two judges commented that they gave me more points despite the technical skill shown in Bernard’s being greater since they assumed/understood that mine was in accordance with the criteria.

One judge decided Bernard’s was technically better and cuter with this comment:
“The definition of cuteness I will follow is ‘attractiveness that is pretty and endearing’. Left displays considerable skill in the choice of colors and the minimal application. The shadows on the face convey the soft shape and are extremely well done; the cat peeks out of the page with a perfect expression of indifference. The soft pink of the ears and subtle grey shadows lend strength to the brilliant blue/green eyes which make this exceedingly pretty and irresistably endearing. The cuteness factor is off the chart!“

Isn’t it interesting that we both chose white cats with grey shadows and both used pink as a secondary colour?

Gorilla

Another surprise choice, from a judge who I expected would have picked any number of other animals. Mine is on the left, and Bernard’s on the right. The judges wasted no time in their deliberation, and awarded Bernard the win 3.3-1.7 (yes, more split votes).

I went with bombast in my depiction, intending to evoke Kong silhouetted against the sun. But my intention exceeded my ability, and some of the finer detail of my pencil drawing was lost when wetted (see below).

Here are some judges comments:
“I can’t get over the expression of left“
“I’ll pick the silverback on the right; I like the use of light“
“Left is a tortured gorilla’s cream on behalf of all gorillas killed by selfish and greedy humans to satisfy a rich mans ego. The bold lines and dramatic colors evoke deep trauma and injustice. A world in which this typically peaceful giant is hunted and abused is an ugly world indeed and this artwork reminds me to be angry and sad and to do something to make the world better for all the beautiful creatures that live in it before human stupidity destroys all of it. Right is peaceful and gentle by comparison. The colors are soft and natural. A gorilla going about his day bored of any human observer. It is a fine artwork but the indifferent beauty depicted serves to intensify the impact of the emotion portrayed by left.“

Snake

Two judges are impossible to predict, one likes bold color, and two respond to dramatic imagery. This was my conclusion by this point, so to win I had to use bold colors and do more than a simple depiction of the subject. When Snake was chosen, the obvious choice therefore was Lucifer and his apple, and my depiction is on the left. I had been impressed by Bernard’s gorilla and queried him about his techniques. As a result this was the first time I didn’t simply draw a pencil illustration and wet it: I also applied the pencils directly to the wet postcard and mixed paints on a palette and applied them using a super-fine brush I cut down just to show the scales. As this one went into the mail, I was confident.

As it turns out the judges agreed and gave me the unanimous win: 5-0. I can see flaws in mine, but I think B had a few missteps here, not the least of being a lack of ‘mouth definition’ (which three judges cited).

Here’s some of the comments:
“Right looks like a cross between a snake and an alligator!”
“Left makes me think of a hidden danger in a gamebook, where the critter on the right is a tad eel-ish for my money.”
“Great texture in snake and apple”
“Use of the apple in left is very clever… The colors contrast and compliment to a lovely effect… The eye is odd but suits the supposedly friendly nature of the snake to tempt a sweet virgin to taste forbidden fruit!” (This was the only judge that commented on the biblical theme.)

And so, after six animals, the tally is: we are currently tied with 3 wins each! This is good for the contest, but hard for us. I was hoping for an early lead to I could ‘get experimental’, but with the competition as tight as it is every card matters and I must always think of the judges as I decide what to create.

Here’s some behind-the-scenes photos of some of my creations before I added water:

And here’s my cute cat in pencils:

One aspect of the contest invisible to judges are that we are both using an identical set of twelve postcards. This was an arbitrary decision of mine (I printed two copies of a 12-card set several months back) and only after we decided this did I realize this added an extra wrinkle: we couldn’t discard a picture and start again since we wouldn’t have enough postcards! So if we want to practice we need to use other cards. Bernard has done just that a few times, and he has also been sending me his practice arts, none of which were intended for judge submission. Here’s his alternate ‘cute domestic housecat’ and ‘betta’. He won Betta but I won Cat, do you think he could have won had he submitted this one:

As usual in about six weeks I’ll follow up with the final results. As of right now, this is anyone’s game 🙂

Posted in Animals, Art, Blog, Miscellaneous, Postcards | 1 Comment »

Ultraman Cards!

Sunday, February 6th, 2022

Just before Christmas this arrived:

It’s a box of Ultraman trading cards! This is the first item I have ever Kickstarted, and was released by a boutique trading card company here in the USA of all places. It contains cards based on Ultra Q and the first Ultraman series.

The 36 packs were hand-collated and packed, but had security and tamper-proof seals. I opened one pack a day for about a month, which I’ve found is the best way to enjoy a full box of cards.

The bulk of the set is 67 story cards and 91 monster cards, and I got them all. The numbering is such that about the first third of each type is for Ultra Q and the remainder Ultraman.

The story cards have full episode summaries on the back, which seems normal for those of us that have been collecting cards since the 1980s but is very rare for modern sets.

The monster cards have pictures on the back that can form ten different nine card mosaics. I love when cards do this and these are particularly great!

One cool subset are 3D cards, and the box actually comes with a pair of glasses. The 3D effect is incredibly good – easily the best I’ve seen on a trading card – and I’m very impressed with these!

Other subsets include copies of some of the sketch card art (a very nice inclusion)…

Stickers based on the opening credit silhouettes…

And several types of character portrait cards.

But you want to see the chase cards I got don’t you? Well my (actual) metal ‘box topper’ was this:

A bit bland I admit, especially compared to some of the other ones, but this is my first ever metal card and it’s very impressive. I also got (in a pack) this original sketch card:

That alien is called ‘antlar’. Obviously getting a sketch of someone like Ultraman or Zoffy or Zetton would have been amazing all original sketch cards are special. I looked up the artist and she’s done cards for many different series, always in a comical, cartoony way like here.

I also got a lenticular card (which doesn’t photo well) and as part of the Kickstarter they threw in some test print cards as well:

And this was one of the more unusual things in my box:

It’s a ‘DIY sketch card blank’! Should I draw my own Ultraman on it?

This is a set with a mind-boggling amount of variant cards. In fact the checklist spans the inside of three pack wrappers and even then doesn’t include every possible card:

I daresay it would be impossible to collect everything, but I’m happy that of the 360+ cards I got, I completed the basic set of episode and monster cards, got all the stickers, all the 3D cards, all of the lenticular and metal art cards, over 90% of the sketch art cards and a good selection of limited variants of most of the above!

I even have a full second set of episode cards, which of course will one day go to Bernard. All told, only one card in my box was an un-needed duplicate, but even then I’ve got an idea for it…

Needless to say this is a great card set and I’m extremely happy with my purchase (which was about $70). The Kickstarter itself was very delayed due to the pandemic (many sketch artists were overseas and the mailing of the art slowed considerably) but the company was extremely communicative and as you can see delivered in spades. I will certainly be joining the follow up set which will include Ultraseven and Return of Ultraman!

Posted in Art, Collecting, Otaku, Trading Cards, TV | 1 Comment »

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