Category: Collecting

Masters Of Magnetism

February 22, 2018

That’s our fridge, or rather a portion of it. Every available inch (and more! is covered in magnets. Eventually we ran out of space and am now covering the insides of our metal front doors. Is there no end to this magnet-buying madness? Not in sight, surely…

This post is a somewhat random showcase of some of this sprawling collection. Sometimes they have a story, sometimes not. But it shows the variety amidst the madness 🙂

This weird alien magnet was one of the very first we got. It was purchased about 25 years ago from an unusual discount store in Utica, where we lived at the time. This guy has therefore graced five fridges in his life, and still has pride-of-place.

Incidentally this type of magnet – rectangular plastic printed front with magnetic back – is very common now and ubiquitous in stores everywhere. But back when I got him the shape and size was novel, and coupled with the art one of the reasons he caught my eye.

Two of the many examples of (often free) advertising magnets. The first was given to me at a bookstore in mid 2000, and the second we probably got when we bought subs at the now defunct restaurant. In addition to these, we have everything from rental car agencies to lawyers offices to pet grooming services to even meat sellers magnets on our fridge!

A lovely magnetic memento crafted for us on the spot at a work event my wife’s work put on a few years back. A star of our collection 🙂

This is an example of a ‘kept gift’. I bought this for someone whose name rhymes with ‘Learned’ and never gave it. If he finds out he’ll curse me forever until he remembers the bird magnet I just gave him for his birthday, which he will then tweet a picture of along with the message: “Best gift I’ve ever been given!”

Tacky 3D tourist magnets are rarely bad and often – as in these examples – fantastic. There’s quite an assortment of these on display, each as garish as the next. This is a category that grows with every trip!

Speaking of trips, this is a cross-stitched Stonehenge magnet KLS made from a little kit purchased right at the Stonehenge visitors center! It’s a lovely thing, only about an inch square, and another prized magnet.

This is a weird one. I purchased this in NM when I visited Florence years back and it’s to date the only magnet I have featuring Satan. Although I do have a Cthulhu… ?

Last but not least one of my very own creations, an invader made of Perler beads. I made several of these and gave some away. In fact I’ve been thinking of making more. Want one?

That’s it for now, but there’s many others, including in categories not shown here (such as lenticular, otaku, ‘naughty’ and wrestling). Want to see more? Let me know!

The Stamp Collector (Final Part)

December 23, 2017

This series turned out longer and more work than anticipated but as we all know, all good things must come to an end.

The largest portion of my stamp ‘collection’ is still affixed to the hundreds of postcards I have stored together in a box. From all over the world and spanning over twenty years, these contain a fascinating selection of stamps and cancellations.

The New Zealand stamps on the postcards sent by Bernard were quite special and varied, but I also like the mini airmail stamp attached to the Swiss stamp and the (very unique!) Death Valley cancellation.

There’s those Star Wars stamps attached to a postcard I sent from Hawaii a decade ago. There’s the only postcard I ever received from Italy (and boring at that) followed by an example of my creative stamping from England.

Those were both from Oz last year, and you may have seen these on your cards? Australia seems to have doubled down on large and lavish animal stamps these past years, and I always seek them out to include them on postcards.

In fact I’ve got no problem whatsoever eating up large portions of the back of a postcard with lovely stamps…. like this:

Which is another specimen I sent KLS last year. I’ve done the above several times over the years, but this one may be my masterpiece!

One thing I’ve learned doing research for this series is that while collectors prefer stamps to be as pristine as possible, there are certain stamps that are more collectible if they had been used for postage. This is why I particularly like the ones attached to my postcards, since they were used to mail stuff to me!

In a few days I’m off to Australia again. This time, when you get your postcards, spare a moment to appreciate the stamps. It’s likely I put as much thought into them as I did the card itself or even what I wrote on it.

I hope you found this series interesting. I ended up much farther down the rabbit hole than I ever expected, and at times even I couldn’t see light, but I’m glad I’m out now and can move on with the usual topics 🙂

2017 In Games

December 19, 2017

You know you’ve been waiting for it, and here it is: the annual summary of my game purchases!

I won’t dance around the facts: 2017 was a ‘down year’ for game spending. I bought only 40 games in 2017, spending a total of $1291. This is the smallest amount of total purchases since 2012, and the smallest amount spend since 1994! Results like this threaten an existential crisis: am I still a gamer?

Of course I am! And we’ll get to that in a little bit, but first here are the pie charts everyone loves. First the games purchased; % by system:

And next the % breakdown by dollars spent:

(Yes I know the fonts are illegibly tiny; click on each for a bigger version.)

The pertinent points:
– I bought games for a few ‘dead systems’ this year: the DS, PSP and NES
– While I still bought Vita games, I bought less than half last year (10 vs 28). This is unsurprising; Sony declared this a ‘legacy system’ a couple of years ago now…
– The Nintendo Switch enter the charts! I bought one game….. but don’t have a Switch yet 😉

As far as overall gaming comments I don’t feel like I’m playing less than ever. I still play Puzzle & Dragons (and am coming up on 1700 consecutive days of logging in) and still enjoy it, and I still have a backlog of (good!) Vita RPGs that are unopened and should last me for years. But I have been playing less console gaming, and certainly spending less on consoles overall. The switch appeals to me for this reason, since I envisage myself more likely to play the games on the system in portable mode than on the TV.

On to my top games of the year, as usual sorted by system. Given the scant purchases for some systems I’ll only tackle the three major ones this time:

Toukiden 2 (PS Vita)

This is a Monster Hunter clone set in feudal Japan with crazy bosses and an emphasis on over-the-top attacks and destructible body parts (on the beasts). It’s an improvement on the already-great Vita original and I played it to death for a couple of months back in late Spring this year. In my opinion, one of the all-time best Vita games.

Monster Hunter Stories (3DS)

This is a pokemon-like game set in the MH world that was much, much better than I thought it would be. I played it like a fiend, only putting it down about 120 hours later. It had fantastic graphics and a great story but above all the gameplay loop was loads of fun and as a (insane) MH fan the appeal of the world was top-notch. Recommended.

The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (Wii U)

You know how you’ve read/seen countless times that this game is one of (if not THE) best ever made and it’s so good it’s better than real life? Yep, it’s all true. This is the definition of a magnum opus, and a game that will be spoken about for generations to come. Easily the game of the year for me, and worth buying a Wii U/Switch just to play. (This is also likely the last Wii U game I will ever buy, and it’s certainly a worthy title for the system to retire on.)

I’m doing this a little early this year, especially since I have a inkling what’s under the tree for me and specifically that one of those ‘whats’ may even give Zelda a run for it’s money in the masterpiece stakes. Oh well, you’ll have to wait until this time next year to find out 🙂

Robot Claw