Category: Miscellaneous

NYCC 2015 Day 1

  • October 8, 2015

  
That’s the sun rising in the fog as we rode the train to NY this morning for another (our 8th?) comic con. You know the drill by now, legions of people, otaku madness, great exhaustion, much excitement. 

And so it started again! 

 
We only had to line up for a half hour or so to get in, but the crowds are truly massive. Once inside it started off on a pretty high note, as I lined up to get my very own Yugioh token card made: 

 
I think I nailed the pose didn’t I? 

 
Usually seeing this piece of remarkable art made entirely of Jelly Beans would be quite a thing, but here it’s just one of an endless cavalcade of spectacles. One minute you could be checking out a display of costumes from the upcoming Warcraft film, next minute you could be digging through old comics or getting a wrestlers autograph and the next moment you could be shopping at a stand that only sold Star Trek merchandise: 

 
We saw all sorts of amazing figurines… 

 
We saw fine art, action figures and stuffed toys… 

 
We saw amazing cosplay: 

 
Really amazing cosplay: 

 
Old toys… 

 
And even an incredibly expensive pack of trading cards: 

 
It was a long day, and even after 6.5 hours we know there’s still much left to see (not to mention panels etc.)

But day 1 was a big success 🙂 

 
The giant Monster Hunter cat? That’s KLS’s birthday  gift 🙂

  • Posted in Art
  • Robert

Force Friday

  • September 4, 2015

Today was ‘Force Friday’, which was the heavily marketed release day for the first toys from the upcoming Star Wars film. It was a bit of a big deal, and while many shops had midnight launch events I stayed in bed and waited until after work to spend my cash. 

 
Everywhere I went the in-store advertising was abundant, with special props going to Target for their full size animated BB-8 droid (lower left in the photo) as well as the way they replaced some of their register belts with Star Wars scrolling text belts: 

 
I’ve always been a Star Wars fan. It has never waned, and I can’t deny a tremendous anticipation for the new film. I’m also a sucker for merchandise of all sorts, and spent a few hours today driving around several stores since there seemed to be different stuff everywhere.

So what did I buy…? 

 
That’s the boring stuff. Two action figures, a mini model of one of the new Tie Fighters, and a placemat 🙂 

 
Slightly more interesting was that balloon. I bought it since I hadn’t seen (and liked) the Drew Struzan art on it 🙂 

 

Those are ‘collectable game pieces’ sold blind in packs of five. The games is a bit like dominoes but we love the fact they are magnetic! With the addition of a few tiny little magnets our fridge will now be covered in flashy Star Wars hexagons! 

 

Avoid the blind-packed micro machine toys. Even at $2 they are terrible. The one shown is The Force Awakens heroine Rey on some sort of speeder. 

 

Dog tags are always fun! I guess this confirms C3PO to be in the new film.  

 
The less said about the above the better…

…but wouldn’t it make a fine Christmas gift? 

 
This was my second favourite purchase of today. One thing I was surprised by was how much new merchandise of all sorts there was – not just Force Awakens stuff. These Lego kits are based on the old Bionicle style and look great, but Grievous is far and away the best of the bunch. 

 
My favourite purchase was this children’s meal set, which will now be added to our cupboard alongside five (!) other SW meal sets dating back to ’99 when Episode 1 came out!

Look at that plate! Look at the cereal bowl with Kylo Ren and Phasma on it! And what about the First Order Tie Fighter on the cup?! Lovely stuff all of it 🙂

As I said: lifelong fan! 

 
That’s something I didn’t buy: a $150 four foot talking Vader model. Pretty cool eh?

There’s one item though I should have bought, and probably will, and that’s the new Lego First Order Tie Fighter. I guess I just love the black and white design too much!

So readers, what did you pick up on Force Friday?

  • Posted in Miscellaneous
  • Robert

The Fair

  • August 30, 2015

Once again we visited the Duchess County Fair. It was great as usual, and here’s a list of ten things we saw:

1) Lots of rides! They were a little less dazzling after what we’d seen in Hamburg, but I still cursed my craven sense of balance that prevents me from riding them these days! 

 
2) Prize winning wheat! Nearby were sunflowers about 10 feet tall!

 
3) Delicious fair food, absolutely worth the incredibly inflated prices! $9 for a cob of corn and some lemonade? No problem 😉

 
4) This amazing first-prize winner of the 7-10 year old ‘non kit’ Lego assembly contest. I kid you not, this was indeed the blue ribbon winner:

 
5) Some extremely sporty sheep! 

 
6) A legion of Minions! 

 
7) Fine, fine art: 

 
8) Porky the giant pig! Enough sausage for 1000 people! Two 100 pound hams! (No we didn’t enter to see what was probably a sleeping pig) 

 
9) A baby cow, born only minutes earlier: 

 
10) And last but not least many animals for KLS to feed. She was scared of the camel because of his teeth, but he turned out to be a gentle (slobbering) fellow 🙂