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Let Me Share These With You

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

From a very secret source, I managed to recently obtain the following:

OMG! It’s a factory sealed box of Star Trek trading cards all the way from 1991! Isn’t it strange how the TNG card says ‘Patrick Stewart’ and the TOS card says ‘James T. Kirk’?

Oh well, let’s look inside:

ZOMG! Exactly half the box is packs of Next Generation cards, and half is Original Series cards. Such organization! (And yes, that’s my desk visible behind… note the coaster AW)

Here’s a closer look at the two different types of packs:

I opened exactly one of each type (the ones in the above shot, actually). Here’s the very first card I pulled from the first pack:

Gadzooks! A nifty hologram of the Enterprise! I imagine these are ‘rare’, and I was very lucky to get one in only the first pack. I wonder how many others are available in the packs in this box?

Here’s the rest of the cards from the pack:

Yep, they look next-genny enough. Nice pictures, lots of words on the back. Real fanboy (or, fangirl) stuff here folks. Here’s front and back detail of a card most fans would treasure:

Lovely stuff!

I ripped into an original series pack as well. Some real delights in there! Here’s a standout card:

Good old Tiberius himself! (Or is that a doppleganger?)

At any rate…

Let me share a few packs with each of you 🙂

I realized, upon buying this magnificent bounty of endless entertainment, that posting about it on the blog would lead to feelings of jealousy and despair amongst many of you. To fend off such things, you can have some packs for free! But there is a very small catch…

To get some free packs of Star Trek cards, simply complete the following sentence in a comment:

“The true and honest reason why I believe every single Star Trek episode is better than every single Doctor Who episode is…”

Depending on your reply, you may find your Christmas parcel stuffed with a few extra Roddenberrian goodies this year:

Posted in Art, Blog, Books & Comics, Family, Miscellaneous, Movies, Trading Cards | 6 Comments »

Poster Boy (part two)

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

Earlier this year, this post caused a few chuckles. Who doesn’t love terrible old photos?

Certainly not me! So with pride, two more:

Lovely aren’t they? Thanks to my brother for fishing these out of an abyss 🙂

Now, some analysis. Obviously these two photos were taken at the same time as before, and painful as it may be to admit, the calendar dates it as 1987. The bottom picture (these were taken in my room) shows bits of the same posters as before. But there is now more to be seen, so much more!

For starters, in the top picture, in which I’m pulling off an early Monkey D Luffy look, the wall behind me is plastered in vaguely homoerotic art. Most prominent above me is a Depeche Mode poster (circa 1985), but I can also see Duran Duran, U2, Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw and (dare I admit it?!) Wham. Can anyone decipher any of the other posters?

Ignoring my outfit for now (and frankly, for ever), let’s investigate what I hold. In my right hand is my yellow (yes, yellow) Sharp QT12 cassette player. This may have been my second favourite possession in those days. In the other hand? Well, lets just say this poster is proof for anyone who doubted this post (specifically the third-last paragraph).

But, as much as you’ll guffaw at the photo with me in it, the true gem for me is the lower of the two photos. Here we see a very rare example of my artistic skills of the day! On the dresser and back of the door you can see four pictures that I drew. The one partially cut off is an Alphaville picture, possibly the cover of Forever Young. The other three show my renditions of the following…

The white dragon from Caverns Of The Snow Witch:

The cover of Afternoons In Utopia, done in a very minimalistic style:

And a ‘Mezzodaemon’ from Fiend Folio:

If you look very closely, you can also see gamebooks in the little bookshelf in the lower left (under a statue of Mary)!

I love this photo. All the same sorts of things I rave on about now are right there – 25 years ago. I just love that I was drawing massive drawings of monsters from gamebooks and sticking them on my wall.

Next time I see some college nerd strutting his stuff, I can say with confidence “Let me tell you kid, I was drawing mezzodaemons even before you were born!” 🙂

Posted in Art, Blog, Books & Comics, Family, Gamebooks, Games, Miscellaneous, Music, Otaku, Time | 2 Comments »

NYCC Day Four

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Day four at NYCC looked a bit like this:

And a bit like this:

Sunday, the last day of the con, is the shortest. It’s also kids day. This means a greater density of attendees right from the opening time. Yep, it’s madness.

So what did we see and do yesterday? Well we bought stuff (alas no Gundam), went to a panel (Viz), spent some time in ‘artists alley’ (I chatted with two MTG artists and got a basic land signed!) and basically made ourselves even more tired!

The train trip home, much later in the day, was a peaceful and relaxing merciful release from the relentlessness that is 4 days of NYCC. But you can bet we’ll be back next year!

Here’s the Sunday cosplay highlights:

Posted in Books & Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, MTG, Otaku, Toys, Trip | Comments Closed

NYCC Day Three

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

The cell signal’s a bit slow here at the hotel, so I didn’t go back to read last years comic con post. But I reckon if I did then Saturday would have included mention of the same thing we encountered today: the crowds!

It was like half of the otaku in America was at NYCC today, and we were in the thick of it!

We started early by sitting in the front seats of a Moyoco Anno panel. She’s the creator of several manga series I’ve enjoyed, including Happy Mania and Flowers & Bees. She was reserved, amusing and very polite, as she discussed (via a translator) her career and influences.

One particularly funny moment during the panel happened during the audience Q&A. Here’s a photo:

He even tried to ask his question with the mask on!

We saw a great many other ‘celebrities’ today, including Tom ‘Draco Malfoy’ Felton, Burt Ward, Adam West, Blair Butler, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Booker T, Brutus Beefcake, the Bella Twins, Kelly Kelly, Joel Hodgson, Nicholas ‘Zander’ Brandon, Tera Patrick, Lou Ferrigno and this lovely girl:

Sadly AW, I couldn’t get her autograph since the tickets had sold out in advance 🙁

Conventions like this are about seeing creators and celebrities, about playing games or seeing movies in advance, about meeting other fans and seeing cosplayers, but also (and importantly), about buying stuff! And believe me when I say a large portion of the shows many halls are dedicated to vendors selling all manner of things. What sorts of stuff do we buy at NYCC?

Well, for starters, figurines:

Clothing (such as bathrobes):

Wigs (of any colour):

Art (paintings, posters, prints):

Curiosities (most of the ‘steampunk’ variety):

Toys (including collectible ones):

Stuffed animals (such as Monster Hunter themed):

And model kits:

Today’s vast crowds also included even more cosplayers, and sadly the human density made it tricky to get photos of most of them. But, as with the previous entries, three highlights from those I saw today:

The last one was a tree person from last years Doctor Who Christmas special. The middle one gets points for originality with her ewok costume. And the girl on top? Well I’m not sure who she is dressed as, but she was tall!

Tomorrow is the last day. We’ve spent hundreds so far (including many Christmas gifts for the usual suspects), but there’s still cash burning a hole in my wallet! Will I cave and spend $100 on a Gundam kit?!? That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? 🙂

Posted in Art, Books & Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, Otaku, Tech, Toys, Trip | 1 Comment »

NYCC Day Two

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Here’s how I feel right now:

Assuming, of course, that her face says “My hips need replacement and I need to sleep for a day!” 🙂

We spent over 7 hours at the con today, and the highlight – indeed the highlight of the entire con I expect – can be summarized by this photo:

Yep, I was star struck a little. As would be expected meeting a childhood hero. He was personable and charming and gracious and everything you’d expect him to be.

Later on we also went to his hour long panel…

…which was held in a massive room where all seats were packed! The moderator made a few funny jokes about the disparate audiences, which included the old-schoolers and the new, much younger fans (who were well aware Doctor 5 is now Doctor 10’s dad-in-law)!

We actually saw two panels in a row in this room. Before Peter Davison we sat through Grant Morrison which was very entertaining, including the bits when he spoke about his experiences summoning demons via black magic (he didn’t seem to be joking).

But thats not the only Who we saw today! Not only was the Doctor Who shop twice as big as ever:

But they even had a special guest in the form of Karen Gillan’s cousin, aka. young Amy Pond:

There was also some actual comic appreciation going on today! A good chunk of the main hall has vendors like this:

I bought some comics today, and then later on in the day met (and got an autograph from) Amanda Conner, whose comic art I’m a fan of.

There’s so, so much more. About a dozen hours at the con so far and I still feel there’s lots to see. Tomorrow we’ve got more panels to see and some special autographs to (hopefully!) collect.

Before I end for the day, the cosplay! To say the quality is high is an understatement. Check out the three best I took photos of today: