Late last night, I managed to post my newest episode of The Anklecast on Patreon for the supporters there. You should head over to Patreon and join in the fun, and check out episode. It's a good story that's fun to listen to, and then Rish and I and Announcer Man continue the good times of the Dunesteef on into the new decade. If you liked the Dunesteef, you'd like the recent Anklecast episodes from the last few years as well, because they're basically the Dunesteef continued. Hope to see you there.
I probably ought to make a new profile picture for over on Patreon. That's still the fat bearded me. That guy is gone now.
Last week, I finally reached an average below 220. I was able to shave off that gray beard I've been wanting to get rid of, and it was exciting and joyous. So, what happened this week? Did I blow it? Did I let the excitement sweep me up and cause a let down? Watch and find out on the continuing saga of Big Anklevich on Health!
More toys to report. I've been totally obsessed with going to Ross recently, and have made the mistake of trying to widen my net. On Thursday, I decided to leave for work early, head over to I-45 and drive down toward work that way, stopping at all the Rosses along the way.
It was a huge mistake. I spent several hours hitting six different Rosses, and finding exactly nothing. I always get this way when I make a big score at Ross. I did this a few weeks ago after I found the three Figrin D'ans at Ross. I went everywhere looking for more, and only wound up finding two extras, and all of them were at stores I normally hit on a regular basis anyway, never at any of the new ones I went to. Now here I was doing it again because I'd found two Klatoonian Raiders.
I guess it's just a new manifestation of my addictive personality. I was addicted to sugar and carbs. I've put a stop to that, and so it has just come up in other ways. It's a good thing that I never gamble, do drugs, or even drink, because I think I'd be a complete wreck over any one of those things. I spend way too much just running around buying toys to get my dopamine. It's time te get a hold on myself, and go back to just looking at the Rosses near me that I usually go to on a normal reasonable timeline.
Anyway, after learning the lesson of not stepping up my Ross searches, I went to a nearby Ross that I usually go to regularly. They didn't have anything that I was hoping for, none of the Star Wars Vintage Series aliens, for example, but they did have one Halo figure that I thought was worth picking up.
This guy is the Spartan EVA. I thought he was pretty cool, and he looks different than the Halo guys I have been finding recently. I bought six of those Masterchief Sargeants that were selling for $2 a while back...
But this other guy was totally different looking, so I picked him up. I'm not sure what I'll do with this guy or with any of the others. I love the armor that Halo guys come with, but I'm not really a fan of Halo itself. I think I'd rather make custom figures that replace the helmets with alien heads like I did with this Walrus Man figure from a while back.
I thought it was a shame that they had raised the price of this new wave they were selling back up to $4. I guess I could only get one...of course, one was all they had at this Ross anyway, so I was good to stop there.
Here we are, and it's January 28th. That's four weeks of January. Where am I at now? Well, here's the chart for January so far:
I don't know about you, but if you ask me, that looks pretty awesome. I've stuck with my goal of 1,250 almost every day for the whole month. Only once getting forgetful and quitting 110 words early and once ending my entire book and quitting 230 words early because of that. My overrun on the many days that went way above 1,250 made it so those two very small mishaps don't matter at all.
My total for the month so far is all the way up at 37,209. Where does that put me on my quest to beat last months all-time best total for a month? Let's see the meter!
37209 / 38046 (97.80%)
97.8% of the way! That's pretty much there. In fact, with my daily goal of 1,250, I am only one day from eclipsing it. I will hit the monthly goal tomorrow unless I hit a bus or something instead and am incapacitated.
That's pretty great, too, because it's not a measly goal. In November, my goal was just 15,000. Which was what I would have gotten if I hit exactly 500 words every day of the month. In December, I picked 30,000 which, again, was what I would have gotten if I'd hit exactly 1,000 words each day. I would have to have failed several times to not get to those goals. I didn't even have to stretch to achieve them.
This month, I picked my all time record high total for a single month, and set that as my goal to beat. That would obviously require a stretch to achieve. I've never gotten more in a month, but I was determined to do so, and now I'm on the doorstep. With three more days of 1,250 a day, I should get almost 41,000 words for the month. That may be a record that stands for a while.
So, with the month going that well, how is the year so far?
There's the rest of the months beyond January. Add those all up and looky there what I got! That's right! Just yesterday, I crossed over into six figures. I am officially 100,000 words into this process. I think that means that I am 1/3 of the way there. In what amounts to three months, I've managed to write four months worth of words. That's pretty great. I'm really stoked. If I keep this up, I might reach something like 400,000 words in one year.
Let's see the year-to-date meter.
102168 / 304475 (33.56%)
There it is, 33.56% that's more than 33.34%, which is the one third mark. It's really coming along.
So, I am still writing on "The Elephant in the Room." The story that I originally thought would be a short story has now crossed over the line into novella territory, leaving novelette behind in the dust. I think it's getting close to the finish, but not that close. I don't know. I'm not really sure just how much more story there is to tell. I've got an idea of how I want it to end, but I don't know how many more steps there are along the way to get there. There's several things that I think need to happen before I'm done, so I might be able to go another whole week on the story, but probably not much more than that.
After that, comes that sketchy time where I have to figure out just what comes next. I've got to get a thousand words written. What am I going to write them on? Well, there's a few things I've been thinking of, so I may jump on them. For example, I mentioned last time I was in this situation that there was an idea that I got in a dream back in 2002 or so. I told it to Rish on the day he came up from L.A. to visit me in Sacramento, and I've mentioned it so many times since then that it's become comical. I can't find the outline I did for it years ago, and neither can Rish, so I'd have to start over from the drawing board, but that would be fine, I suppose. I'd like to do that idea so that I could cross it off my list, and stop thinking about it. It's been more than twenty years now, after all.
We'll see. I guess I'll see what I can do. Maybe I can look around some more and see if I can't find that old outline. Maybe on my old computer...
Of course, for now, I've got to finish what I'm working on. That won't happen before January comes to a close. That's only three days away. I'll be back with an update on the entire month when that happens, so I'll see you then.
It's been a bit of a Star Wars Vintage Collection bonanza at Ross recently. I remember when I first started collecting figures for Ankletown Station, I despaired because I only could find Fortnite figures or Halo figures or Batman figures in my price range. I wanted there to be a preponderance of Star Wars aliens, but I couldn't afford to buy them. They were never on sale at Ross, and worse, just as I started collecting them, Hasbro raised their prices from around $12 a piece to more like $17 a piece. They wanted to charge as much as I was used to paying for a 6-inch figure for a 3.75-inch figure.
I bought a few of them, but I kept it as sparing as possible, because they were so costly. I couldn't afford to go ham on them like I was doing with Fortnite or Halo or Batman or Final Faction.
Eventually, though, it started showing up more frequently. There were still mostly just the human figures, but sometimes I got treats like the Cantina band or a bunch of cheap stormtroopers.
Now I'm getting spoiled. It's been basically a bonanza of Vintage Collection at Ross recently. Another wave of figures has hit, and I'm finding them here and there. I got the Klatoonian Raiders that I showed you yesterday, and the girl—Vel Sartha—too.
Yesterday I found even more. I came across these stormtroopers.
I almost didn't get them, because I thought they were clone troopers, and I despise those things, but they're not, they're just stormtroopers that follow the BS color scheme shit that they invented in the Clone Wars TV show. Yes, I'm not a fan of the yellow highlights, but it's fine. I'll take 'em.
They come with these dumb mortars, because, you know, we're still fighting with mortars, even though everyone has a laser gun in their hand. They came with four rounds for the mortars that fit into the troopers backpacks.
I dig that they have storage for them at least. I suspect that I won't use them as mortars, though. I'll probably use them as cups in the Cantina bar instead. They look like they're the right size for that.
I also found the Endor Luke Skywalker at Ross yesterday.
That's pretty cool. He looks really good.
Although, now I need a speeder bike for him to cut the fins off of as it flies past. Maybe that'll show up at Ross too.
I had to pick up this Luke, because years ago now, I found the Endor Leia on sale at Walmart. Now I've got 2/3rds of our heroes from Return of the Jedi.
I just gotta get me a Han, and I'm all set for my Endor collection. He's out there, maybe he'll make it to Ross too.
Anyway, all this talk of the bounty I can find at Ross makes me want to go to work early and swing past all the Rosses in a part of town I usually don't go to on my way, just to see what they have...maybe I'll go hop in the shower now and get going...
In yesterday's post, I talked about the Klatoonian Raiders that I found at a Ross. Today, I found the character from the Andor series named Vel Sartha.
I didn't have that one, and it would make a fine denizen of Ankletown Station, so I picked her up.
I also found another Cassian Andor, and bought it as well. I thought I might be able to use the body to change up some of the various figures I have into looking like something all new.
That's a simple process of action figure customizing that they call kitbashing. First of all, I just took the jacket off to see what that would look like. I expected it to look terrible, because his arms are the color of the jacket, so they wouldn't match with his shirt. There's no actual way to take off the jacket completely, since the sleeves are not removable. But...
I think it actually looks pretty good. It just looks like he has a blue vest on. It looks a little bit medieval or something, like he's wearing his Ren Fair costume, but I think it looks good.
Now, I had to pull out those Katoonian Raiders and do something with them.
The headress and skirts are actually overlay pieces on the base figure, so I started pulling and tugging to see if I could get them off.
It wasn't too hard, and now my Klatoonian looked like this:
Truthfully, he's fine as is. His clothes are mostly the same the same color, but that's not too bad. Plenty of people dress in five different shades of brown, right? Well, I thought I'd see if I couldn't maybe add a little, after all, I had a jacket sitting around with nowhere to go. I threw it on him, and man I think it looks good.
There's not even any issues with the arms being the wrong color. The shoulder pauldrons the figure had make the sleeves look perfectly natural. I think his arms may be the same shade of brown as the detail work on the jacket too.
So, just like that, I have an all new Klatoonian that nobody else has, and I can have him walking beside the other one, and no one would know they were the same figure.
That's pretty fun. I've always wanted my space station to be full to the brim with Star Wars aliens as if the entire place was one big cantina from Mos Eisley. I guess this is a good start.
For fun, I stuck the klatoonian head onto Cassian Andor's body.
Even that could work. It doesn't look great, the neck would need some paint, of course, and I'd have to switch out the hands, but it's definitely not unusable. The real problem is that the ball joint for the two heads is a different size, so I'd have to figure out how to deal with that. Maybe a little paint would improve it too. It's definitely doable.
Rish and I always used to joke about back in the day about encountering this certain problem. We'd be walking into Walmart, looking for some particular treasure in the toy area, and we'd say, "There's probably somebody back there right now already picking through them and grabbing the Gold Mark I Iron Man variants on us."
Sometimes, that would actually make us paranoid enough to walk faster trying to get there before this mythical other collector got everything we wanted.
Well, the other day, I walked into Ross, and actually encountered that very thing. As I approached the toys, I noticed a dude who was just about my age, and he was standing in front of the pegs that had several Star Wars Vintage Collection figures that hadn't been there the last time. He had two packages in his hand already. He'd already gotten all of the Gold Mark I Iron Man variants!
Then, he moved on and walked further down the aisle to look at what else there was on offer. I moved in behind him, and found that he had at least left behind these two guys:
I have one of these guys that Rish secured for me when GameStop was having a sale last summer. But I'd love to have dozens of different alien guys hanging around in my spaceport, so adding a few more Klatoonians would be awesome.
I grabbed them and saw that the other guy had even left behind a Luke Skywalker figure that they made of him from the big finale at the end of Mandalorian season 2. That figure was so similar to the figure that I already have of Luke posed on my Sand Skiff that I decided to leave it behind for the next collector to come along.
So, I guess it's not that bad if some other collector hits it before you. Maybe he doesn't need the Klatoonian Raider. Maybe he's already got one, and doesn't want a second. You never know.
This memory came up on Facebook the other day, and I couldn't help myself but to write a little something about it.
This was back when Rish was complaining a lot about how often I had to pee when we would go out dinner before recording Dunesteef episodes. I tried to chalk it up to the fact that I drank so much soda, so of course I needed to pee a lot. Then, however, my vision started deteriorating rapidly. I thought, as you can see from the Facebook post above, that I was getting old, but no sir, that had little to do with it. Less than two months later, I was in the doctor's office being diagnosed with diabetes, and I started on a new journey in life. I had no idea what it would entail, but I've changed an awful lot since then for the better.
I wrote an empassioned rant on Facebook when I reposted this picture, and I guess I'll add that to this post here in case you haven't seen it:
8 years ago, I was trying to deal with my vision going suddenly quite blurry. I thought I was just getting old, but that wasn’t it at all. I was actually tumbling into type-2 diabetes. It’s been a long journey since then, with many struggles and wrong turns, but I’ve finally gained a full understanding of what was behind my condition and put it into complete remission. I only eat food that’s fit for humans now, not the processed, chemical-laden poison that our factories belch out and try to pass off as food. I’m healthier than I’ve been in 30 or 40 years, and it feels so good. Our food supply is the cause behind all of the chronic illnesses we suffer from in the modern world. Leave it behind and enjoy some health for once. Try the zero-carb carnivore lifestyle. You won’t regret it.
Here I am now, eight years later, and I don't have to wear glasses around. I need them for reading, but not for daily routine, because my eyes were never the problem. I just had to get the sugar that was clouding the fluid out of my eyes. I've lost 70 lbs, and I'm still chugging. I probably have 30 more to go before I'm done and back to what I should be. Life is much better as a human that eats human food. There's those memes out there that jokingly say that chocolate tastes as good as being skinny feels, but I'm sorry to say that it is not true, because being skinny isn't just being smaller, it's a whole range of other health improvements that make life a million times more livable and joyful.
I said a few weeks ago to watch for a thumbnail that included a clean-shaven Big Anklevich on it. Well, the time has finally arrived. Watch the video to see me finally surpass my all-time low weight and then shave that grey-chinned beard off and make myself look ten years younger.
I found one more Figrin D'an at Ross...but at what cost? I drove around town forever, going to all the Rosses that my Google Maps could find for me, and wasted a ton of time, and all I found was one lousy figure.
I got so excited when I found three Figrin D'ans in one store, and thought I would find loads of them in other stores too, but that certainly hasn't been the case. I've got five altogether now, still two short of the full band, and I've been to more Rosses than I can count. I guess I need to step back and just let them come to me. I'll just go to Ross when I normally do, about once a week, and if I find some I find some. If not, then oh well. C'est la vie.
When I got home with the fifth one, I set up this picture.
It looks pretty awesome, I'll have to admit. I'd love to fill out the rest of the band. The trouble I'm going to have is getting the instruments for the final three. In the 6-inch figures, they put out Figrin D'an, who came with the same three different instruments that the 4-inch figure does.
And they also put out Nalan Cheel who comes with the three larger instruments.
The one with the larger instruments is a deluxe figure which costs twice as much, but you could buy one of those and six of the others, and assemble the whole band. There's two options.
With the 4-inch guys, however, they don't have that option. You can buy the Figrin D'an that I've been finding at Ross that comes with the three smaller instruments, or you can buy the Hasbro Pulse exclusive set of the whole band with all the instruments.
So, if you want the drum, organ or...tuba, I don't know what they're supposed to be...but if you want those, you just have to go ahead and buy the whole band. Why even put out the solo release of Figrin D'an? It makes no sense.
Rish sent me a link to someone on Etsy who sells 3D prints of the instruments, so maybe that's the way I'll have to go. I don't know. We'll see if I can even manage to find seven of them altogether in the first place.
While I had all the Figrin D'ans out for that picture up above, I figured I'd see what the similarly proportioned aliens I have from Fortnite might look like with their instruments. What do you think? Who does it better?
I was going to do all seven of the blue guys that I found in my bin, but I had such a hard time posing these ones that I just gave up. Look at their instruments...several of them are bent because I couldn't get the figure's arms to come together in the right way, and getting the mouthpiece to sit where their mouth is was impossible.
They look pretty cool though, right? These guys definitely look like they should be space jazz musicians, probably even more so than the real Modal Nodes.
It's been three weeks now in January, how am I doing? Am I still going? Well, here's my chart:
My goal for this month is 1,250 words per day, and this week, I've managed to hit that every single day, even though one of the days I only got eight words over. It's been a little bit difficult this week, because I started a new story on Monday. I didn't have the entire thing planned out or anything, so a lot of it has been winging it. That's probably the main reason I was happy to stop at 1,258 on Monday.
When you write 1,250 every day, though, you make really good progress. I was talking to Rish on the phone today, and I told him my story had reached almost 10,000 words already (9,482 to be exact), he cursed me for getting so much done. Considering that Rish has always out-produced me it feels good to get that hate from him.
So, I managed to keep with my new augmented goal every day this week...and that's the first time now that I've hit it every day. Last week I only managed 1,022 words on Sunday, because I finished my book and wasn't prepared to start something new, and two weeks ago, I only made it to 1,140 once, because I forgot that I hadn't finished all the way, and went to bed without writing another 110 words. This week, no snafus. I just stuck with it every night until I was done.
I have been a little lazy, letting my words wait until late in the day before I finish them, which could wind up biting me in the end, but it hasn't so far, so I guess I'm doing okay.
Now, how am I doing toward my goal for the month? What is my goal for the month? Well, last month, I hit my all-time record word count for a single month, 38,046, and I wanted to top that, so I made my goal 38,047. What's my percentage so far?
27761 / 38046 (72.97%)
Three weeks in, and I'm 72.91% of the way there. Is that good? It sure is, because we're only 67.74% of the way through the month. So I'm a full five percent ahead of the pace. If I keep this up, I should beat that one month record.
How's my progress toward the year goal? Here's my chart for the rest of the time with my total word count in the green box:
So, after two full months, four days of October, and the first three weeks of January, I'm at 92,720 words. That's pretty exciting. I'm closing in on 100,000. In fact, if I keep up my pace this week, I'll cross that line before I return for my next report. That's sweet.
My average for the month is all the way up at 1,322, which is the highest it's been so far, and is well above my goal of 1,250 per day, so that's going well.
What is my percentage toward my final goal?
92720 / 304475 (30.45%)
30% of the way there. We are only 23.5% of the way through the year so far, so I am cruising way ahead of the pace on the yearly goal. That's pretty sweet too.
All in all it's going well. I managed to transition from the end of one story to the beginning of another story this week without too much of a problem, so that was good. That's always been the hardest part of this whole thing. If I have to write every day, what do I do if I don't have something to start into? I may not manage to get my words. It's a pretty dicey time, filled with anxiety, until I get into another story. So getting past that this week was really nice.
Unfortunately, I'm almost already to the point where I'll need to do that again. This story probably isn't going to be a really, really long one like the last thing I wrote. That was a whole book. This will not be. It's actually already grown to be much larger than I thought it would be at all, though, so who knows. I'm not sure how long I might stretch it out. I can't say since I'm pantsing my way through it. I guess we'll see. I'll tell you what's happened in my next report. See you then.
The weather took a huge dip in temperature over the past week. I was freaked out last week about what was coming. It looked like it was supposed to reach 15°.
It didn't quite make it that low. Here in Houston we got all the way down to 18°.
That's about 15° below the worst that it ever gets each winter, so it was pretty gnarly. Then, add into that the fact that on the very first day of the freeze, a rain storm came through and made everything wet, so now there was going to be ice everywhere. It was starting to look like 2021 all over again.
So, on Monday, as it was all beginning, I left for work super early. I figured I could drive slow, and if I got there faster than I expected, I could stop at any Rosses along the way as well.
It was ugly out there, but not too dangerous. At one point, I was stopped at a light, and I noticed that it was snowing...just barely, but it was definitely snow.
I also stopped at several Rosses along the way, and I found this one to be quite humorous. It was January 15th, weeks after the Christmas season had ended, but when I walked into the store, this was the music playing.
It was loud too. It didn't come through very well in the video, though. I had to boost the audio to try to make it so you could hear it, but I still don't know if you can. The song that it's playing is this one:
Yeah, that's a Christmas song, so they'd turned the Christmas channel back on, and I happened to come into the store while they were playing the song that says:
Looks like a cold, cold winter Plenty of ice and snow But we'll keep the love light in our hearts aglow Looks like a long, long winter Baby what do we care As long as we have this love of ours to share It's gonna be cold outside It's gonna be warm inside So we'll cuddle up by a cozy fire side by side
I was pretty amused by the song and thought it crazy that I happened in during the time it was playing. They'd changed it back to Christmas music for the day, and I'd come in in the middle of the song about how cold the winter was going to be. Was that coincidence? Or were they just playing this song on repeat? I don't know, maybe I'm over explaining it. Maybe it's not funny to anyone but me, but there you go.
Bith is the name of the alien species that play in the cantina band on Star Wars. I talked about them the other day when I found three of them at a Ross and got all excited. Well, the excitement still continues, and I've been hitting every Ross I can to see if I can't find more of them. For one thing, there's supposed to be seven of them in the band, so I'm a long way from that being complete, but I would buy every one of them that I see. I'd be happy to swap their heads and hands out and make custom aliens to go in Ankletown Station as well. I want as many Star Wars-style aliens as I can get in there.
Well, the other day, I managed to find another one.
I was stoked, but I was hoping there were more. I searched high and low in the store, but no others appeared. After finding three in one store, I figured there must be at least three in every box of them that comes from corporate, right?
Well, if there was, either somebody else bought the others before I got there, or they only put one of them out so far.
I took it up to the front to buy it, and wished that I hadn't found it after all. The line was so long that it took me about twenty minutes to get to the front. I would have turned around and left if I didn't have something I wanted so much.
I also grabbed a Cassian Andor figure they had there, and when I got out to the car, I thought it would be fun to see just how well the heads would swap for a custom figure. I think it looks pretty cool.
It's Figrin D'an on his day off. I already have one Cassian Andor, but if I can repurpose his body for a bunch of customs, then it might be worth it to get one or two more. I pulled his jacket off too, mostly just to see if it would come off, and it did, and looked fine without it. It looked like he was just wearing a blue vest over a reddish shirt.
Then I stuck Andor's head on the Bith body to see how that would look. Again, not bad.
Looks servicable as is, but I might be able to add some accessories and make it even better.
I sent the two pictures to Rish, and he texted back saying:
Which is a likely observation. It really does look like that outfit Luke wore in the Death Star battle with Darth Vader and the Emperor. Did they just repurpose a body they already had sculpted because they could get away with it?
Well, if they did, it wasn't the same Luke that I have. I got this one a while back and put it on the Sand Skiff from Jabba's Palace, and he has grayish tunic over top.
That's definitely not the first Luke Skywalker in Jedi Knight outfit in the Vintage Collection though, so it still could be a re-use. Doesn't matter to me. I like it no matter what. It'll be pretty good on Ankletown Station...hmm...I should start on that someday soon, shouldn't I?
I know what you're thinking, "What, it's January 18th, how can you be doing another Holiday Decorations post?"
Well, it turns out that I have been expanding my holiday decorations a little bit too much. So, now I have several things to put up as Valentine's Day decorations as well. Maybe you think that's stupid. I mean, if you're Rish Outfield, then I know you do. This video is Rish Outfield, except for Valentine's Day.
Maybe you're right. It probably is stupid, but I've pretty much run out of space to add toys to my shelves, so the only way I can add things is by trading them out with something else. I can do that permanently, by finding something that I like better than what I am displaying now, or I can do it temporarily, by putting up something for a month or two out of the year...say during a certain holiday season or another.
If I do it for Christmas, Halloween, 4th of July, and Easter, why not Valentine's Day?
So, here we are, these are my few decorations for the season.
There's only a few things up there. First of all, there's the sign on the AT-AT.
The sign came from the dollar store, and I thought it made a pretty good centerpiece of the space. Then, I got out the first things I ever bought for Valentine's Day, you might have guessed it, the Pez dispensers.
They don't make quite as many Valentine's Day Pez dispensers as they do for Christmas, so this bunch is my only set. I do have a set of dispensers that sort of fit in though. Since President's Day tends to happen on the same week, and sometimes even on the same day, I also put up these guys.
The only other things I've found for toys that seem to pertain to Valentine's Day to me are various versions of the Fortnite Cuddle Team Leader figure. I like it, because it's like an adult version of the old Love-A-Lot Bear from the Care Bears that I remember from when I was a kid. I guess it's a Furry, or a Brony version of that kid's toy.
I have the big 12-inch Titan Heroes version.
I gave her a little homemade valentine to hold, to make it more obvious what she's doing there. I also got the 6-inch version.
Okay, that's acdtually the 6-inch version and the 7-inch version. For some reason, McFarlane toys loves this 7-inch scale, and does all their toys in that. They look okay with 6-inch for the most part. It just looks like one of your characters is Wolverine and the other one is an NBA player. Not too bad. It's not like one's a hobbit and one's a troll or anything.
Anyway, I love those two figures. It's the same character, but different skins. The regular one is called Cuddle Team Leader, and the effed up one is called Ragsy. I like the contrast. It's like one of them is the girl while she still has a boyfriend, and the other one is after she's been dumped, so I gave them signs that kind of go along with their look.
Then I have the 4-inch scale figures.
The one on the left is actually a Christmas figure that came out this year. I guess they think that giving it a scarf is enough to make it feel like Christmas. I looked at it and said, this thing would work great for Valentine's too, so I paired it with the regular Cuddle Team Leader and gave them Happy Valentine's Day signs to hold up.
And that's it. That's my holiday decorations. I need to get a little more to make it worthwhile, I suppose. I hate that they're all just the same character. Maybe I need to get an actual Love-A-Lot Bear to put up as well. That might be cool, though it'll probably cost a lot to get a classic toy like that.
Actually, now that I think of it, that Arcee that's there next to the bears is perfect for Valentine's Day. Maybe I should give her a sign too. I think they've done a couple other versions of Arcee. Maybe I could get some of those as well. I might be able to expand this after all.
I was thinking of printing out a sign for a kissing booth, and putting it up in the cubby holes that have couples inside of it, like Medusa and Black Bolt or Cloak and Dagger...except that's not supposed to be what kissing booths are, is it? Kissing booths is where a hot chick gives kisses to any old guy who has a buck to raise money for charity or whatever, right? Maybe I need to put it in different cubby holes, like in She-Ra's slot or Storm's slot. I'll have to think about that...I guess, feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
Mark Twain once said, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." They would have to be if he was saying that, I guess. Well, for the last while, I've been saying the same about the glory days of Ross, and yet I keep finding more stuff there that I can't help but post about here.
I'm back again. I was at Ross the other day, looking at the dearth of worthwhile items when I suddenly gasped. They had something I wanted quite a lot...not only that, but they had three of them. I grabbed them all and took them up to the register.
Those are Figrin D'an figures from the Star Wars Vintage Collection. I've been thinking about buying one from Amazon. They had them marked all the way down to $10.18 and it seemed like it might be too good of a deal to let pass me by, but here they are for half that, and I could get three of them.
If you don't recognize Figrin D'an, he is the leader of the Modal Nodes, the band playing that amazing space jazz in the Mos Eisley cantina in Star Wars.
Three of them is a good start, but not even enough to be all of them. There's at least seven of them, and if I was going to get them at Amazon price (which is already marked down $5), it would cost me $70 to assemble the band. Now it might only be $35. I was pretty excited.
I got them home and opened them up. What do you think?
It's a pretty good start. The Modal Nodes could be the house band in the Ankletown Station cantina as well. Or these guys could just be the surviving members still out playing their music throughout the galaxy, depending on whether I can find more of them. the fact that I found three at once gives me high hopes, although those high hopes led me to a second Ross that morning, and all I found there was this super flamboyant version of Lando.
The house band for that guy's cantina would certainly be the Bee Gees or something. I once saw this Fortnite 4-pack on for really cheap at Ross...
...and I thought, I could swap out the heads and make the Bee Gees with that.
Although it's probably closer to Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.
Either way, now that I have that goofy Lando, I wonder if it was a mistake to let all those white suits pass me by.
Anyway, I guess I'll keep looking, and hopefully I'll find a lot more of those Figrin D'an figures. I'd love to get the whole cantina band...in fact, I'd love as many of those aliens as I can get. I could pop their heads onto any number of other figures to create more aliens wandering around the streets of Ankletown.
