Category: Blog

Highway Robbery

  • May 10, 2017

On May The Fourth – aka “Star Wars day” – I purchased this:

Don’t let the size fool you. It’s a single pack of Star Wars trading cards. Not just any cards though, the premium ‘High-Tek’ series from late last year. Here’s the inside of the box:

Topps spares no expense on packaging do they? Here’s how big that single pack is:

Now here’s the evil truth: this single pack cost me $60. Sixty dollars. Sixty dollars! Also it was on sale (due to Star Wars day). It’s normally $75!!

So let’s look inside:

Eight cards. Eight. $60 for only eight trading cards. Admittedly they’re all plastic, but there’s only 8 of them, and they all look sameish, and all feature characters of dubious interest. 

I could go into lots of detail here about how the all-plastic nature of the set is actually a negative, or how these cards themselves aren’t even as good as the plastic chase cards in the Aus/UK Rogue One set (which was $1/pack!) but there’s really no need because they cost me $7.50 each and that’s highway robbery!

So why so expensive? It’s because each pack contains an autographed card. Here’s mine:

Yes dear readers, that’s the actual autograph of Jett “George is my dad” Lucas, legendary non-actor who played youngling Zett Jukassa in Episodes 1 and 2. I’m sure you remember his blink-and-you-miss-him character fondly.

Now instead of $60 for 8 cards, you could think of this as, say, $5 for 7 cards and $55 for this dudes autograph. Except the auto itself goes for about a tenner on eBay.

In short, this product is a total ripoff. Not worth it by any stretch for the cards themself, with an autograph of extremely questionable worth as my reward. I was taken for a ride by Topps 🙂

Am I bitter or regretful? Of course not! To be honest I didn’t expect much going in, so in that sense it lived down to my expectations. Plus the gambling factor can’t be denied: I could have found this:

Or an autograph by Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Daisy Ridley etc. Autographs by these main characters sell for $1000+ on eBay, and that’s the reason like a product such as this exists. It’s not even the most expensive SW trading card set!

So a total ripoff, which had a small chance of being amazing, but made a good blog post anyway 🙂

Ten More Treasures

  • April 20, 2017

I’m in the middle of a lengthy reorganization of our ‘library’ room, which contains 6 bookshelves and loads of books, toys and other stuff. I spend a lot of time in this room doing my crafting and hobbie stuff and I’ve wanted to reorganize it for years.

This has entailed throwing away some books (and magazines, of which I had scads), putting others in storage, and generally moving stuff around. It’s taken ages, been harder than I thought, but has at the same time been a lot of fun since I’ve ‘rediscovered’ so much stuff I had almost forgotten I owned or simply hasn’t had the attention it deserved.

This then is a post containing ten items that live in the room. All unusual, all treasured, and all still getting a featured position in the reorganized library 🙂

PS2 Slime controller (2005). This is a fully functional PlayStation 2 controller modeled after the famous slime from the Dragon Quest series. I bought it when it came out but never used it much since it’s uncomfortable to hold. Over the years it’s become a bit sticky since it has a rubber surface and while it’s appreciated in value it’ll just sit smiling on my shelf for ever 🙂

Viewtiful Joe bobblehead (2003). This was a promotional item given away with early purchases of the game. It’s ceramic, looks like a bootleg and the head is a bit too heavy for the spring. It’s weird and has been a shelf fixture for over a decade. Amusingly this item is now ‘worth’ more than the game on eBay!

Darth Maul cookie jar (1999). I’ve mentioned this before on the blog; it was my first (and last? ever QVC purchase and is still my favourite piece of Phantom Menace merchandise. It’s fairly large (about 20 cm tall) but impractical for storage so for me it’s always been decorative. Another item that has appreciated in value.

A tiny castle (?). I don’t know where or when I got this but it may very well date to my teenage years. Items like this (and little dragons) were somewhat common decades ago and I always liked them and used to own a few. Alas this is my only one now and I love it. Incidentally if you ever see anything like this (the very small size is important) it may make a good gift…

Bootleg R2 droid figure (?). I got this in England last year, specifically by trading tickets for it in an arcade in Margate. I like R2 figures, and something about this one – with its wrong colours and mismatched leg lengths – is endearing. Although 100% bootleg, this is a key item in my Star Wars collection 🙂

Burger King bobblehead (2006). These were sold at Burger King to promote the Super Bowl over a decade ago! It’s so weird I love it. Another item that is ‘worth’ (on eBay) several times what I paid for it.

R2-D2 plastic mug (2012). This was sold (and may still be today) at the Disney movie park in Florida. It’s gigantic, and yes I found space for it in my suitcase when we visited 5 years ago 🙂

Dragonlance stained glass (1997). These were sold for $90 exclusively at the Gen-Con convention in 1997. I bought this a couple of years ago for much less at a local shop, and the seller had had it since she bought it at Gen Con back when they were sold! It’s quite pretty, made of painted glass with real metal lines between the colours. I’d like to hang it but it’s quite heavy and I don’t have an appropriate window so it rests against the wall. It’s tough to find these (there were three designs) for sale now but they seem to go for a premium.

Darth Maul glass ornament (2010?). It’s hard to find info on this online. I’m pretty sure I bought it at Target, which means it should have been fairly common, but I can’t find any on auction or sold online so I’m not exactly sure when it came out. It’s a highly detailed blown glass Christmas ornament modeled (again) after Darth Maul from Star Wars. It’s super creepy but also lovely and another treasure in my SW collection. No I’ve never put it in the Christmas tree!

This Doctor Who trading card (1996). This is card #26 from the 1996 Cornerstone Doctor Who card set. I’ll admit my memories of how I obtained this are clouded… can one of you fill me in? (No I didn’t write that outrageous slander on the card!)

My next goal is to organize the attic. Lord knows what I may find up there! If I ever get around to it, you can expect to see some very unusual ‘treasures’ here once I’m done!

Birthday Aquisitions #5: The Rest

  • March 17, 2017

A few months ago KLS and I found this in a local arcade:

I was dazzled, not just by the fact it was the worlds largest Pac-Man, but by the fact it used a giant bank of LEDs for the display:

So imagine my surprise when Florence sent me this for my birthday:

It’s a Pac-Man clock using LEDs for the display! And it animates!

The animations are of Pac-Man being chased by or chasing the ghosts, and are perfect recreations of the arcade sprites and colours. All using just LEDs:

I love it and it’s proudly displayed in my study! Thanks Florence!

Now I know we’ve been doing the birthday thing for days now and it’s obscene how much stuff I got but this next item – speaking two weeks down the road from my actual birthday – has turned out to be the thing I have used the most:

Yep, a ‘gherkin fork’! I have taken to occasionally buying gherkins and they’re just not the same unless eaten with a quality long fork. Yes I know it’s metal and yes I’m a weirdo that doesn’t like metal in his mouth but for this fork and a delicious gherkin I’m making an exception!

Mum and Dad: maybe I’ll bring one to Oz next time to replace the one that ‘got lost’ 🙂

There’s a few other gifts I was going to list today (a sterling engine, the new Zelda, some tools…) but they will likely get their own posts eventually. I’ll end with one last item, very recently received in the mail from none other than Bernard:

A 3D Rilakkuma model! As with the Pac-Man clock had I known this existed I would have bought it for myself already!

So there you have it: a mostly comprehensive series of posts documenting much of what I got for my birthday. Too much to be true, and – since I bought much of it myself – tailor made for me. 

I’ll end with a request: Of all the items I listed this week, what item(s) would you most – or least – like to own yourselves? 

You never know. If it’s a Guy N Smith novel maybe I can make your wish come true 😉