Category: Toys

Poster Boy

March 25, 2012

So yeah there was this post a few years back which was very popular. The worst photos of me ever? Yeah… not quite. Check this out:

The above is a photograph so diabolically awful that it pushes the boundaries of what even I would dare to put on the blog. It was taken by my brother using some sort of school-issued B&W camera. I think he was trying to be arty. Jesus, Mary and Joseph it’s a bad photo. I don’t even have any hair! And what is that hat??! Feel free to savage me in your comments 🙂

Now to the good part: check out those posters!

I used to hang a lot of posters on my walls. When I was a lad, say in 1987, these posters tended to be of the video game sort, as evidenced by this shot. Yes the photo is awful (as in, sooooooo embarrasingly awful it makes me weep) but you must admit my ‘video game otaku’ street credit went through the roof when you saw the posters I displayed back then?

I can spot C+VG posters of Way Of The Exploding Fist 2 (an awesome game I beat many times), Leviathan (a wretched C64 Zaxxon clone that I hated), and Space Harrier (the big poster). Immediately behind my head is the 2-part 1987 Zzap64 calendar, and above and to the right is another calendar (C&VG perhaps) using Ghosts’n’Goblins art. In the bottom right is an awesome Proteus poster (that just shot my gamebook otaku rating into the stratosphere).

I can’t identify the art on the one above my head, or directly behind me. Nor can I identify what the art on the visible half of the Zzap64 calendar is meant to represent. Anyone?

But, my friends, but the poster I am most proud of is only visible in part in the top left of the image. Only the most maniacal of game fans would ever in their wildest dreams think that this image was worth making into a poster, much less hand proudly on their walls. What is it, you ask?

I present: the full map of Cauldron 2 on the C64…

Oh those were the days! If only we lived in a world where I could still proudly hang game maps on my wall and call them art. Even then it was a transient fancy, most of these posters torn down only a few years later to be replaced with Nick Cave or Depeche Mode. These days I have equally otaku-ish stuff on the walls (I smell a blog entry there…) but nothing that makes me as proud as what you see in the above photo.

Excluding my hat, (lack of) hair, clothing, glasses and what I am holding of course 😉

Five Gifts

March 4, 2012

I received a great many gifts for my birthday. Too many! Here’s five of them, from five different people.

From JAF I received this stunning Lego kit (reviewed as one of the best Technic kits ever made):

From SFL I received a very clever Star Wars t-shirt (can you get the joke?):

From myself I received Heuvelman’s legendary opus from 1965 on sea monsters:

From JBF I received a Kuroneko Figma:

And from KLS I received an unopened box of trading cards. Note the warning on the bottom:

I’ll update to include BFS’s gift when it arrives 😉

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March 1, 2012

Here’s something else I got for Christmas:

A mechanical marvel in natural wood! Here’s what it looked like when opened:

One thing is missing from the above photo – the glue! Although the kit claimed to include wood glue, no such glue was found inside. Luckily – and not so wisely – I had some superglue handy…

The instructions to make the thing were all like this:

Which is to say they made great sense to someone who already knew how to make it!

Yes I know it doesn’t seem difficult, but reconsider your impression based on the knowledge that parts were mislabeled, miscut or (in case) had the holes misdrilled. Now add to the mix the fact that the person putting it together is (unwisely) using super glue, which it turns out bonds made-in-Chinese wooden dino kit parts together in femtoseconds.

That’s the base. The idea (I think!) is that the dino reproduces a walking motion when the crank is turned…

Forming the head! It looks a bit cute even in the instructions doesn’t it?

Connecting the crankshaft to the inner leg. I did this step incorrectly at first, and removing the piece was like trying to untie the Gordian knot. This would be, of course, because I was using super glue and the incorrectly placed pieces had bonded together in less than a single yoctosecond!

But eventually, after some cursing of myself, Yossie and even God, I managed to complete the wooden robot dino-beast. Let’s even call it a BioZoid! Here he stands in all his glory:

Despite my comments this was an enjoyable build. It probably would have been more fun (albeit much slower) had I used wood glue and not super glue though. That was unwise…

What the photo doesn’t exactly show is that it didn’t work! If you turned the crank it spastically flopped a bit, but the head and arms moved not at all and the whole thing just looked uncomfortable. KLS had a great idea though – set it on fire! I had dreams of a future blog post showing my new BioZoid! resplendent in flames! A PyroZoid! perhaps?

Alas this was not to be, because while inspecting the arm/head mechanism the next day I broke it. I blame the superglue 🙂

Robot Claw