At The Risk Of Being Further Mocked

There was a time on this soccer message board back in 2006 that I signed up and made my name Snarf, picking a random thing to identify myself with. It didn't matter, it was just a message board. But, this was a message board for an in-stadium supporters group, and I started meeting these people in real life. Each time, I would tell them my name but then have to say, "or uh, Snarf on the message boards." After a while, I got tired of that, because it was super annoying, and it tended to make people want to talk about how they also liked Thundercats when they were kids. I had nothing to say about them, really, so I changed my name on the message board to simply be my first name. So, then I could just introduce myself and stop at that.

That's about the most overt thing I've ever done as a person who once appreciated the Thundercats when it came on TV back in 1985. Nonetheless, I get constantly mocked by Rish on his podcast for that fleeting appreciation. I never even saw the second season of the show, but somehow he felt it necessary to put a needle drop sounder of the Thundercats every single time he mentions my name.

Why do I mention this? Well, I'm risking further mockery from Rish by talking about what came in the mail for me the other day, but I'm going to do it anyway. A company called Super7 has been making a fancy set of Thundercats toys over the last few years. I thought they would be fun to have. I could put them on my shelves along with the Firefly figures, Wall-E figures, Star Wars figures, GI Joe figures, Pez dispensers, and many many other things I had displayed.

I just wanted to get the main Thundercats from the show...the first season of the show, not the characters they added in later years that I never saw. So, I grabbed Lion-O and Panthro. Then, after a few more months, they announced that Cheetara was coming, and I pre-ordered that one. They put out a wave or so with only characters I didn't want, then eventually Tigra was announced, and I preordered that one.

By this time, the price for each figure had gone up $10. I grumbled about it, but I figured, in for a penny in for a pound, I needed to carry through with my quest to assemble all the main seven Thundercats characters. After Cheetara and Tigra came, there were many more waves of figures with no characters I wanted.

Finally, after what seems like forever, they put another one of the main seven out. This time it was Snarf, the one I had to change my name away from on the message board. I pre-ordered him, even though the price had gone up another $10 per figure, and waited for more than a year for him to finally arrive. Well, when I got back from Sunday Funday last weekend, the box from BigBadToyStore was waiting on my porch.

They always come in such fancy packaging, with a cool reflective slip cover over the top. Inside...

There he is, the annoying, whiny companion to the main character, Lion-O. These figures are so overbuilt. They come with tons of accessories, extra hands and heads. I guess, they feel like they need to justify the outrageous price. Sadly, I don't care about any of that crap. I just want the figure, and would be happy if that was all that came...and they charged $20 less.

I put my favorite head on Snarf.

Then I stuck him in the cubby hole where the rest of the Thundercats are located.

I'm getting there. There's only two more figures left to arrive. I've already pre-ordered them both as well. Wily-Kit and Wily-Kat will eventually ship my way, probably a year or two from now. And then I'll be done, and won't have to worry about getting further ripped off by Super7.

Of course, that sounder will still play every time my name is mentioned even after that's all over. Hell, the Thundercats symbol will probably be etched into my gravestone. That'll be the headline of the newspaper when I die. THUNDERCATS FAN DIES IN GRISLY TRAFFIC ACCIDENT THE DAY BEFORE RETIRING.