Robot Claw

Insect Stamps

April 17th, 2021

It’s time to open the final pack of topical stamps I bought about six months ago. This time, the theme was insects.

The pack contained 100 stamps from about a dozen countries, and as with previous packs I’ve shown here most of them were CTO stamps that were likely never (intended to be) used for postage.

The stamps feature a wide range of insects, although most of them are beetles or bees. I imagine that most countries only depict native insects, but then given the nature of CTOs I suppose they could depict anything!

The usual suspects include this selection from North Korea…

This sheet from Equatorial Guinea (which apparently didn’t even have a postal service when these stamps were issues on their behalf!)…

And these Cuban stamps, which were amongst the nicest of the selection (and only some of the many Cuban stamps in the envelope).

The most common topic by far was bees, and every country represented had at least one new stamp. I expect a collector could put together a nice collection focusing just on bees!

As handsome as many of these stamps are, it’s one against disappointing that there wasn’t even a single used stamp in this set. Insect stamps are commonly issued by almost every country, and you’d think topical collections could easily include a few actual used stamps.

I may have mentioned in a previous post but when I made this purchase one of my choices (cats) was not in stock so they made a substitution and as an apology included an envelope of Disney stamps. I won’t feature them on this blog since they are frankly awful (and all issued by only two countries). I’ll probably just send them to Bernard for a Christmas gift or something…

Posted in Stamps | 2 Comments »

Ramen 6: Finale!

April 12th, 2021

And so we reach the final ramen post. But I’m not eating ramen today, I’m making it. Specifically, this:

It’s a plastic model kit of a ramen cup! This was made to commemorate 50 years of Cup Noodle and lest there be any doubt…

It’s not edible!

Here’s the contents:

As with all Bandai plastic kits the engineering is astonishing, and the pieces went together easily and almost seamlessly:

I particularly liked the lettering, which was made of plastic rather than used a sticker:

That’s not to say the kit had zero stickers. In fact it has a lot, but they’re easy to attach and make the finished product look incredibly lifelike:

Here’s a shot of the contents (pre-cooking, of course):

And here I faced a choice. Display it with the contents showing, or attach the lid? I chose the latter, and the contents of my cup will therefore be sealed away forever.

Here’s a shot showing scale next to a toy car I just happened to have:

It’s a fantastic kit, and I’ll be keeping it on permanent display 🙂

Posted in Collecting, Crafts, Food, Models, Otaku | 2 Comments »

Kaaterskill Falls

April 10th, 2021

Today we drove about an hour south to visit Kaaterskill Falls. We’d never been before but had read good things about it. We left early to beat the crowds (pandemic, you know…) and parked at the start of a rail trail leading to the falls.

It was a lovely walk through the woods and we had the path to ourselves. It was about a half hour along the trail until we reached the main car park for the falls and a second trail leading to an observation platform.

And then we saw the falls, and were not disappointed!

It’s a two-stage waterfall that falls 260 feet in total, and from the platform you get a good view of the top stage. It’s quite spectacular and I loved how you could still see some remaining ice from winter. The view from the platform was fantastic and would be amazing in the fall:

Even though we were a little tired by now (we’d walked for about an hour) a second path led to the bottom of the falls and of course we had to take it. While the previous walking had been easy this was a bit more difficult, and that was before we reached the perilous steps:

They weren’t messing around with warnings here, and I read there was a death last year so I don’t think they are exaggerating:

There was no ice on the trail but the steps were wet and slippery. I became nervous about KLS and asked her to wait at the middle level while I scuttled to the bottom for some quick snaps of the entire falls:

Before we headed back we went closer to the pool in the middle of the falls. This was the closest we got to the water, which was misting over us as we took the photo. The water was very loud!

By now the crowds had started to arrive, and as we hiked back up (which was strenuous) there was a constant stream of sightseers (and their dogs!) heading down. It wasn’t even 10 am, so if you’re ever planning on visiting go early to avoid crowds!

By the time we got back to the car we were exhausted. All told we’d hiked for over 2 hours and about 14k steps. But it was a great place to visit and I’m sure we’ll return again one day 🙂

Posted in Nature | Comments Closed

Ten Places I’d Like To Visit

April 9th, 2021

Adam had a great idea for a blog post: both of us listing (in 50 words or less) ten places we’d love to visit. This post contains mine; read his list here.

The Bay Of Fundy in the southeastern corner of Canada is known for delicious seafood and some of the biggest tidal surges in the world. We were going to go last year before covid changed our plans, and once the borders reopen it’s high on our agenda.

There’s many good reasons to visit New Zealand, but ever since I saw them on TV as a child I’ve wanted to visit Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Imagine an ‘underground’ boat trip lit only by worms! That’s magic 🙂

The Isle Of Wight off the south coast of England has the worlds largest wild kangaroo population outside of Australia. It’s also a popular tourist destination with sunny beaches, tourist activities and natural beauty aplenty. I’ll go one day for sure.

Selecting a single destination in Switzerland was difficult but in the itinerary I made for our intended trip Zermatt was the destination I was most looking forward to. The reasons for canceling that trip seem silly now post-covid so maybe I’ll visit one day after all?

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove in Kyoto barely needs an explanation. Of everything on this list, this may be the first one I visit.

Speaking of Japan, I’ve always wanted to visit Okinawa! I hardly need to explain my love of Japan, and I think of this as ‘Japan’s Hawaii’ so naturally I’d love to see it for myself.

I’ve always been interested in the Mediterranean Riviera and while France is an obvious destination I’ve already been there so the picturesque Portofino is a natural alternative. I’ve made so many jigsaws of this place, and I’ve always wondered what it would be like to visit…

Gundam Factory is a brand new (in 2020) attraction in Yokohama Japan that I absolutely positively will visit. I guarantee you’ll read about it on this very blog when I do 🙂

Tasmania has always held a strange fascination to me, and ever since Bernard offered to chauffeur me around in a rented luxury car Hobart has jumped to the top of my ‘Oz capital to visit next’ list! I bet I’ll get sick on the ferry though…

We’ve been to the northernmost point of England, and ever since I’ve wanted to hit the southernmost point – Lands End – as well. It’s a tourist trap for sure, but they also have the southernmost post office on England so I can buy postcards and send them from right there!

And there you have it: ten locations, at least 8 of which I hope to visit within the next five years. Which ones sound most interesting to you?

Posted in Miscellaneous | 3 Comments »

Let’s Go Sith!

April 5th, 2021

I made this:

It’s one of many new mosaic kits that LEGO has released. You can assemble one of three images, and I chose Darth Maul.

The instructions say to assemble the mosaic separately as nine tiled pieces with 256 studs apiece, but since this would require having all 12 colours going simultaneously I instead chose to do it by colour.

This way I saw it slowly come together as I worked, and I think I felt this method is much quicker than what the instructions suggest.

To be honest it wasn’t exactly fun, especially when I got to black. I had to place 877 of these identical black studs one at a time! My fingertips were aching when I was done!

All told it took a few hours over two days. Given the tedium of assembly and the (presumed) greater tedium of dismantling it I very much doubt I’ll ever make the other two designs!

It’s bigger and heavier than I expected (but does come with brackets for wall mounting) but looks good from a distance. It would have looked better using the smaller flat pieces rather than studs, but I can see why they avoided that since it would have made disassembly extremely difficult.

Overall it’s more of a curiosity that a success. I don’t think I’ll be buying any more of these, but it does make me more interested in designing a mosaic of my own…

Posted in Art, Crafts, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Toys | Comments Closed