Wednesday, July 31, 2019

A Happy Meal Build-a-Figure on Big Anklevich On Toys

Just posted my new toy video about the massive Happy Meal toy Build-a-figure...or build-an-RV anyway. Check it out. Hope you enjoy.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

No Longer Undefeated

Progress On The Wall Of Voodoo

I've wanted a big fancy wall of divided shelves to display my toys on for a while. I fashion it after the Wall of Magic from the Mental Floss YouTube show.


Rish renamed it the Wall of Voodoo for me, because he prefers black magic to the benign stuff. Yesterday, I put together the two first shelf dividers in my wall of magic, and I'm pretty excited to see it start coming together. Here's shelf one:


I had excess pieces of the same bookshelf that I just cut down into smaller pieces and then nailed them together with our nail gun to get them into shape. Right after I finished the first one, I did a second:


So, the top corner of the Wall of Voodoo is finished!


There's still tons to go on it, but it is actually starting to take shape, and that makes me very excited.

I've also been working on the other side of the study where the books are. I've been making little dividers that enclose the books, and make it so that I can use the empty space above them for more toys. I did these yesterday too:




And I did these ones a few weeks ago:



So, now the entire right two bookshelves are completely built out and filled in. That feels like a big milestone to me. What do you think?

Saturday, July 27, 2019

My First Love

View this post on Instagram

Thanks to whoever it was that posted about these being on sale at Tuesday Morning a few weeks back. I can’t remember who it was, unfortunately. And thanks to @hell_no_gabba_gabba for picking this one up for me. I opened it up today to do an episode of Cheap Toy Hunting for my YouTube channel (see the link in my profile to check the channel out...please!) and I have to admit that I really love it. That probably has a lot to do with how much I love Linda Carter, my first love, but it looks great. I mean, look at this pose! And that crazy cape! I didn’t think I was going to use it at all, but now I think this figure is going to have to be one of my Fourth Of July decorations every year from here on out. . . . . . . #fourthofjuly #wonderwoman #lindacarter #dianaprince #dc #dccomics #wonderwomantvshow #wonderwomantvseries #dcmultiverse #mattel #actionfigures #actionfigures #actionfigureaddict #actionfigurecollector #actionfigurecollection #toys #toycollector #toycollection #toylife #actionfigurephotography #myfirstlove

A post shared by Bigg Anklevich (@biganklevich) on

Duplicated...Duplicated...duplicated...duplicated

I was walking through my local Walmart when I saw this shirt in the kids section:


I know it's a line from the movie...the original movie. I don't know if it's a line from the new remake, because I never saw that, and I never will. I make no secret of my disdain for Disney's soulless live action remakes of their original masterpieces that they've created throughout the years. I find it crass, grasping, and despicable.

And I think the quote on this shirt says it all. I think it's really funny that Disney put it out themselves. As Rish Outfield would say, "don't you think that's a little on the nose?" Oh, wait, Rish hates that phrase. Somebody else would say that.

These crappy remakes are imitating the originals, but not coming close to duplicating them. I present this as exhibit A:


That's enough to make me say:



Disney doesn't care, because they make scads and oodles of money on these things as the public continues to go out and pay their money to see them, but I just think it's funny that they were the ones who put out the shirt trashing their own new movie...and they did it in an attempt to promote their new movie. Was there some subversive designer that snuck this shirt in under the radar. Stupid execs looked at it and thought, "Okay, that's a quote from the movie, that one passes," while the shirt designer chuckled mischievously to himself.

I hope that's what happened. I'd like to think there's more members of the resistance out there than just me.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Knight of Asperity

Everything Old Is New Again

Since I've lost some weight, I was pulling out my old shirts that didn't fit me anymore, and trying them on to see if things have changed. A lot of stuff that I had from back in 2012 or so, when I had my first success at trying to lose weight, actually fit pretty well. I have a bunch of new shirts that I can wear...but they're not new shirts. They're old shirts that the hoarder can finally use again.

I found this one in particular:


I think this one was a birthday gift from Rish Outfield that year, if I remember correctly. You can really tell that it's an old shirt though by the characters that Marvel was allowing to be highlighted on there. Here's a better look at it:


Yeah, there's a lot of Fox-owned characters on there. The entire Fantastic Four makes an appearance, along with the Silver Surfer, Galactus, and Dr. Doom. When was the last time you saw those on a Marvel product?

Also, look at all those X-Men! Iceman, Nightcrawler, Juggernaut, Angel, Colossus, Magneto, Cyclops, Wolverine, and Beast. Those folks were squashed out of sight for such a long time.

Spider-man is front and center, along with his rogues gallery, the Rhino, the Lizard, Sandman, Vulture, Electro, Venom, and the Green Goblin. I don't know that they were ever quite stupid enough to completely try to disavow Sony's Spider-man like they did to the Fox properties, but here's a look at the more recent Marvel Comics T-shirts I've managed to purchase at stores:



Who's up front and center on those shirts? Well, the Avengers for one, including Black Widow and Hawkeye. The first shirt was certainly printed before the big Avengers movie from 2012 hit the theaters. They didn't know they had the gargantuan hit on their hands just yet, I suppose.

Then we've got Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist (friggin' Iron Fist!). Black Panther, Ant-man, Falcon. Sometimes, I can't help but be amazed at what the Marvel Cinematic Universe...which I suppose sort of, kind of includes those Netflix shows...managed to achieve with such second and third tier characters.

But now, everything old is new again. Not just with my shirt fitting me like it used to, but also the characters that have always been Marvel's most popular ones are coming back home, and we'll be seeing them again.

At Comic-con, they announced that the Fantastic Four will be rebooted in the MCU. It'll be a while, but for an old guy like me, a while is a blink of an eye. It feels like I lost that weight and was wearing that T-shirt a year or two ago, not seven years ago. So, before I can even form an opinion on the idea of these characters coming back, their movies will have passed us by, and they'll be rebooting the Inhumans or some other such lower tier characters for us again.

I will say, however, that I don't plan on ever being fat enough to fit these more recent shirts again in the future. That stuff is going to stay old, and never become new again. I'm not that fat guy anymore.

Monday, July 22, 2019

My Story, "Fireflies" On The Dunesteef

We're doing my story that I wrote a few years ago called "Fireflies" on the Dunesteef podcast right now.


The first part is already available. Head over and check it out. You need this story in your life.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Homemade Flight Stands on the Toy Show

I tried my hand at some super duper basic woodworking, and made myself some flight stands. I thought they turned out really great, so I made a video to share with anyone who is interested. Check it out.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Week Eight Report

Okay, it's the week eight progress update. How's my trip to one-derland going? Well, this week I tried adding some non-carnivore food back in. Did it go well? Watch the video and find out.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Gonna Need a New Belt Soon

I noticed today, as I was doing up my belt, that I only have one hole left before I run out.


Then I'm going to need a new belt...or I might be able to dig around in my closet and find an old one that fits me now. After all, this isn't the first time I did a post about my belt on this blog. Back in 2012, I lost a bunch of weight, and needed a belt then. But, because I wasn't quite doing it right back then, I gained all that weight back. I'm pretty sure this time around, it's for good. I'm going to One-derland, and I'm going to take up residence there.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Infinity

Cheap Toy Hunting Scout Walkers

New Episode of Cheap Toy Hunting today, in which I talk about some scout walkers from Return of the Jedi that I found at Ross, and what I did when I found them.

Poo-Pourri Provided for People

Some shit is going down at work...and I mean that literally. I went into the stall today, and discovered this waiting for me:


They have supplied us all with some Poo-pourri! And a cutesy little note to go with it to instruct us all on its usage:


If you've never heard of Poo-pourri, here's their commercial from YouTube:



It was one of those semi-viral things several years ago, like the rainbow-ice-cream-pooping unicorn commercial for the Squatty Potty:



A guy I worked with dressed up like that guy for Halloween, complete with a stuffed unicorn. Anyway, I'm off topic. Apparently, somebody is sick and tired of dealing with the smell in the bathroom. I can feel pretty confident that it's not my fault, though. With all the fasting I do, I hardly ever go number two at work.

I wonder, considering their commercial, if there's Poo-pourri provided for the women's restroom too. But women don't have any problems like that, right?

Monday, July 15, 2019

Week Seven Update

It's a little bit late, but I finally managed to get the video thrown together. This time, I talk about the second half of my vacation, and how much, if any, that it affected my progress.

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Vitruvian HACKS On The Toy Show



Ever heard of Vitruvian HACKS? They're an obscure toy line, but they're totally worth checking out. I know, you could watch my video for a nice little introduction to them, and then proceed from there.

Friday, July 12, 2019

Week Six Update

Here's my update as to how the carnivore and intermittent fasting worked for the first half of my vacation.

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Went On Vacation

And this happened while I was there:


Pretty cool, eh? It was neat to finally meet the famous Rish Outfield in person.

While I was there, we recorded a couple of podcasts, and hung out together for a couple of days too. Had a great time, and it makes me wish that circumstances were different and I could have stayed in town instead of moving to Texas. Ah well, maybe circumstances will change again someday and I'll be able to move back.

At the very least, at least there's a few episodes of the show coming up that you can look forward to.

Thursday, July 4, 2019

Barbecue

If burning a flag is uncool, Walmart has the solution. Barbecue with flag covered charcoal.