Category: Blog

Seen In NYC

March 16, 2025

We’re in NYC doing the usual. Here’s some random photos of a few things we saw today.

This truck was driving around evangelizing via obnoxiously loud speakers. I wonder how many people were swayed but it’s less-than-convincing message?

‘Our’ old hotel is too expensive now so we chose a new one, and when we arrived we upgraded into a better room which is large and very comfy. I think this is ‘our’ new NYC hotel from now on 🙂

A dog in a cart. Do you think he likes wearing the rubber booties?

KLS eating a veggie burger.

NYC is always full of social commentary and activism, both organized and underground. We saw two groups protesting today but I couldn’t work out either cause (members of each were holding unfamiliar flags). And there’s a lot of material like the above posted all around as well. Last time we were here we saw a lot of Teslas, including cybertrucks . We saw none today.

Tomorrow is the St Patrick’s Day parade. Will we go and watch? That depends on the rain…

45+-Year-Old Star Wars Cards

February 9, 2025

The above pic shows the extent of my collection of the first series of Star Wars cards released by Topps back in 1977. As a child I had many more, but as I’ve mentioned on this blog before I glued them into a scrapbook 🙂

At the antique fair last year I purchased the above ‘repacks’ of vintage Star Wars cards. Here’s some of what was inside the one on the left:

In total the repack contained one sticker and 28 cards. They’re all original Topps cards, but they’re from the fifth series released in 1979! In Australia we only ever got one series of Star Wars cards, and had I known American kids saw five different sets on shelves all the way up the release of The Empire Strikes Back I would have been green with envy! I’m happy to have added these to my collection 🙂

Speaking of Empire, I still own my complete set of cards, which you can see above. These are in excellent condition since by that age (8, in 1980) I had stopped destroying my cards! As with Star Wars, Australia only had one set of Empire cards, but America had four, and the second repack I bought at the fair was from the third series:

There were 33 cards in the box, all different, and all in remarkably good condition considering they’re 45 years old. Again, I’m pleased to add them to my collection, but one in particular I was quite surprised to see.

The one on the left – which was also in the repack – is card #1 from the first Topps Empire set. On the right is my card #1 from my childhood set. I’ve circled the differences.

These are typically referred to as ‘Topps’ Star Wars cards today, but the truth is that Topps only sold them in the USA, and they were licensed and sold in other countries by different companies. In Australia it was a gum company named Scanlens, as you can see on the top left of the card shown above. I suspect this is the reason we only ever got one set for each film. Interestingly the Scanlens cards have a slight premium over the Topps ones, and a full set of Scanlens Empire cards in good condition can easily sell for over $100. The stickers are quite a bit rarer (I have most, but not all of them) and a Scanlens set can sell for several times the cost of the card set!

And what about Return Of The Jedi? Ive got a few dozen cards from the first Topps set, as well as about a half dozen unopened packs, including no-doubt rancid gum.

Should I open them?

Still Lovin’ It?

February 5, 2025

It’s been 636 days since I last reviewed a Happy Meal here on this blog, so let’s do it again. This time, it’s this one:

It’s a Pokémon happy meal! We had to wait in the drive-through about 20 minutes for this, and when I was finally able to order they didn’t even have frozen cokes! But that’s another matter and while criminally negligent I won’t hold it against them in this review.

That was in the box: a ‘sticker activity sheet’. Given I was expecting Pokémon cards there was a moment of rage that I only got stickers, until I found this in the box:

I’ll return to the cards in a moment.

The box also contained a poster with a scene on the back on which the included stickers (which I forgot to photograph) could be stuck. I daresay this would have amused children for not much longer than it took me to immediately trash both.

The apple slices were Pokémon themed, which was cute. KLS ate them in record time so I can’t comment on their quality but I imagine they were just as acceptable as Maccas apple slices always are. Also it’s worth mentioning that unlike Australia, you must get apple slices here and can’t swap them out for extra fries!

That’s the ~~Junior Burger~~ Hamburger, and i know you agree it looks absolutely delectable! I devoured it like a professional:

It was… edible. I’m a bit of an expert Happy Meal eater these days – although rarely in the USA – and I have to say that was in the middle range of the below-average USA Maccas food quality. Which is to say worse than it should have been but better than it sometimes has been.

We won’t speak of the fries.

The card pack contained four cards, one shiny. I don’t know if these are random or if everyone gets the same one, and I don’t even care enough to check. One of the reasons I got this meal was because I’ve started playing the Pokémon tcg app on my phone, and after opening dozens of ‘digital packs’ I wanted to open a real one. If you want any of these cards, let me know.

I’ll end with a comment on price. This was a substandard ‘meal’ with not much food and it cost over $6 including tax. Given that in Japan the very same meal with better food and better toys costs about $2.50 I think I’m safe in saying I was fleeced.

It’ll be at least 636 more days before I consider buying another…

Robot Claw