The Fourth Of July Extravaganza

Okay, I guess the time has come for me to post these pictures.

The Fourth of July is upon us, only days away, so I gotta share my decorations from this year.

Sadly, because of the way things went this year, y'all are getting as much enjoyment out of them as I am.

Because of the redoing of the ground floor uh...flooring (there's gotta be another word I could use), I had to take all of this stuff down.

I could have saved myself the effort and never put it up at all.

But I've been gathering all sorts of stuff to beef up my Fourth of July display all year long. If I never put it up for even a day, then what did I do it all for? So, here it is. Everything I've got for Independence Day.

First is the big daddy. This is Eagalus, from the Mythic Legions line of figures. It takes patriotism and the symbols of America and turns it up to an eleven. It'll be all downhill from here. He's too amazing to top.

Next is the first of many Captain America figures. This time he's posing with his new girlfriend, Barbie. I saw this Barbie wearing an American flag swimsuit, and thought it would be perfect. When Covid hit, someone sent me a link about a wedding photographer who did a wedding shoot with Barbie dolls while she was stuck at home on lockdown to entertain herself. That's when I learned that Barbies and Titan Heroes figures are the same size. So, the next time I saw that swimsuit, I grabbed it.

Here's another new addition. This is a sort of Captain America variant or something called Civil Warrior. I'm not even certain who's in there, but I think it's just an armor with Steve Rogers inside. All I know is that it's pretty cool looking, and it's Captain America, so give him a flag and set him on the shelf on the Fourth.

This next guy is actually a bad guy trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes by pretending to be good. His name is Citizen V, but in actuality is Baron Zemo. I don't care, he couldn't look more patriotic, at least.

This is a sort of Hulkbuster armor for Captain America. They put out a line for kids where you could put a figure inside of the armor and then, bash them together or something. That's mainly what kids do with their superhero toys, right? Anyway, I found it on sale one time, and couldn't turn it down. Seemed perfect for the Fourth of July shelf. It looks like an America-themed Transformer.

This next one is a combination of two things I started. Uncle Sam, and Fireworks Team Leader (the red, white, and blue care bear looking one) were part of my Independence Avengers. The blue and white Clone Trooper is the first of a set I was building of red, white, and blue clone troopers. I never got the red and white one though. So, I just mixed them together.

Normally, I have a repainted Fortnite guy pose with them, but I haven't finished repainting it, so it's out for now.

Speaking of red, white, and blue, here's the Halo guys that I was working on earlier in the year. I was going to do repainting on them, but I decided to just stick with one red, one white, and one blue figure. I gave them all new heads (two Barbies and 12-inch Peter Parker), and flags to hold.

These are 4-inch scale Halo alien figures. They came with blue or red armor, so I thought they would be perfect for a Fourth of July shelf.

They look good with their flags, but I also took a closer picture so you can see them better.

I'm not very pleased with the blue I drew onto the guy on the left. It just isn't the right color. It looks more purple than blue. I've been told that isopropyl alcohol can take Sharpie off, so I may do that to see if I can save him...er, it.

Here is the Captain America that spends all year long on my Avengers shelf. I had to shift him in the grouping, though, or else he'd be behind that flag.

Here's an Iron Patriot figure from Marvel Legends. I really like this guy. I love all the weapons he comes with.

Here's two more Captain America figures I have. One of them used to be my favorite Cap, the Face-Off Captain America. The other one does double duty. At Halloween time, he wears his wolf head as Captain America when he turns into a wolf. But, during the Fourth, he wears his standard head, and salutes Old Glory.

This is a Lynda Carter Wonder Woman, wearing the crazy star-spangled cape that she had in the show. It's so spangly that it couldn't be left off the Fourth of July shelf.

Now another Captain America. This one is the Endgame Chris Evans Captain America. Instead of the regular bullseye star shield, he has the Black Panther shields they gave him to fight with.

Next, we've got a knock-off Lego Iron Patriot Hulkbuster figure. It fits nicely in one of the less used smaller slots on the shelf.

This is another one of my favorites. It's a Bioshock Infinite George Washington "Heavy Hitter" Patriot Figure. I just love the look of it. The idea of a Hall of Presidents-type robot going bad and hunting people down with a Gatling gun like this just tickles me.

Now we have the DC Characters Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E. These were almost completely unknown to me when I bought them, but since that day, they've gotten one of those CW series. Of course, I never watched any of the episodes, so they're still completely unknown to me, but maybe they're more known to you?

Almost there. Next is this Titan Heroes Falcon Cap figure. This sucker has big ol' wings. I couldn't figure out how best to put him on the shelf. If his wings are all the way stretched out, he kind of looks weird, because there's so much empty space around him. Turned to the side, the wings are hard to fit, but this pose here isn't too bad. It's kind of a happy medium.

Now we have the fancy Marvel Icons twelve inch Captain America. It was pretty awesome to be able to get this guy back in the day. The figures were outside of my price range, until they went on sale, and then I was able to get all of the figures from that first wave. They're good looking pieces.

One last Titan Heroes Captain America. This one is the Chris Evans one from the Civil War movie. The likeness isn't perfect, but it's better than things like this ever used to be, and I think they've only improved since then.

Then, there's this little four inch scale Captain America. Since he's so small, I got him a toothpick flag to hold.

A toothpick was actually a little too small, though. If you look close, you'll see that I wrapped the toothpick in masking tape to make it thick enough for his hand to grab.

I had a lot more toothpick flags, so I thought I'd spread them around to the rest of my regular figures.

Snake Eyes couldn't hold it either, though. I propped it against his leg so it stayed in place. I guess I should have put masking tape on it too.

Man-At-Arms was even worse, though. I just taped the thing to his hand. It looked fine from afar, but not from up close like this.

At this point, I decided enough was enough. I could have put up dozens of toothpick flags, but getting them to hold them was more of a pain than I thought it would be. I didn't want to spend all day wrapping masking tape, or do other goofy maneuvers like with Snake Eyes or Man-At-Arms, so I just decided to end the decoration process and call it a year. I'll try it again next year.

The worst part of it all was that the next day, I had to tear it all down and pack it up in boxes so I could get those shelves moved out of the way. But at least they saw the light of day at all.

Exquisite Mini

Since I started collecting figures for Ankletown Station, I've stuck pretty close to my toy collecting mantra of getting figures for as cheap as I could manage. 

It's been mostly guys from Ross, and on occasion I've bought from the first run stores, but only the cheaper figures like Fortnite or Halo. Those figures only cost about $10 even brand new. 

On a few rare occasions, I've bought a full-price Star Wars Vintage Collection figure for $13 or $14, but I've never given in and bought the expensive (yet beautiful) JoyToy or Acid Rain World figures that I see on Empire Toy Works all the time.

I recently discovered a company called Hiya Toys, which does figures that sit in between Star Wars and Acid Rain. They're a little more expensive, but they're not bank-breakers. They're also really nice looking. 

They cost about $20, which seems like a lot to me. I've been buying figures for $20 for years, but those were Marvel Legends six-inch figures. In this case, we're talking about a four inch figure not a six inch one.

Hiya Toys has a couple of licenses that would be great on Ankletown Station though. One is Alien, the Fox property started in 1979 by Ridley Scott. Another is Predator, also Fox and started in 1987 with a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. They do AVP: Alien vs. Predator toys as well, because that's pretty natural. The last one I'm interested in is Robocop, which was a 1987 film by Orion Pictures...but may also now be owned by Fox or may not. I can't figure that out.

Anyway, I just thought it would be really fun to have Predators hanging out on the streets of Ankletown, acting just like any other people. Maybe sitting at the bar or getting some pancakes at the diner. Maybe they're bounty hunters...they're certainly good hunters, after all.

I'd love to do the same with Xenomorph aliens as well, and hopefully get a Robocop to walk the streets with the police officers.

I decided I'd give one of these figures a shot, and elected to buy a Predator first. I found one that was selling on Amazon for its original price of $19.99, and had them send it my way. It came today, and I'm pretty excited about it.

I love that they call them the "Exquisite Mini" line, but I think it actually lives up to that. Getting it in a box is already weird. Most figures this small come on a blister card. It already feels like it could be worth the $20.

Opining it up, it had a lot of accessories.

I like that the stand that it comes with is a grate. That should go well with some of the other ideas I had for flooring on Ankletown Station.

The detail and paintwork on this figure is next level stuff. It makes the guys I've gotten from other lines look really plain. 

I almost lost the shuriken that it came with. It fell out of the plastic housing it came in, and I only realized that it was ever there because I watched a YouTube video talking about the figure. I looked on the ground for several minutes before it finally showed itself to me, and I was able to get it into his hands.

His main accessory is this Xenomorph head on a pike, since this is a Predator from the AVP line.

Unfortunately, the plastic on the pike got pretty warped before it ever arrived to me, so the staff looks like it curves significantly on its way up. Not sure if I can manage to straighten this one back out. We'll see.

It'll be fun to put this guy together with figures from the various other lines that I've been collecting.

I'll probably have to get one or two more Predators, a few Xenomorphs too. I'd like an original movie Robocop too, but right now you can only get him after a significant markup, so we'll see how that goes.

I am happy with my purchase, but since these cost about twice as much as most other figures I buy, I'll have to keep them pretty infrequent.

Sure is pretty though, right?

Clearing It All Out

In preparing for our new flooring, I've got to move my bookshelves, which means I have to empty my bookshelves.

So, all of my books and all of my toys have to come down. I started with the Wall of Voodoo. You can read about that here. It was weird to see that shelf empty, even though it has been in place less than a year.

Then I took all of the toys off my main shelves and packed them as carefully as I could into banker's boxes.

I tried to pack as safely as I could. Even if something doesn't break while it's in a box, it can bend. Staffs or arms aren't as neat looking when the plastic they're made of has taken an all new shape because of the pressure put upon it inside of a box it was kept in for a few weeks.

Then I took the books down one shelf at a time.

So, the den grew empty, and my daughter's empty room upstairs grew full.

Now it was finally time to move the bookshelves themselves. I unscrewed the anchors that attached them to the walls, and pulled them forward.

But I couldn't figure out how to get them out. They have two extensions on top that make them very tall. The bookshelves come within a few centimeters of the ceiling. Somehow I tipped them up into their positions, but it doesn't seem possible to tip them back down...at least not without scraping big divots into the ceiling.

I remember it being nearly impossible to get them in, and I really didn't want to try getting them out. I've been grumbling about this since the very first time my wife suggested that we should redo our floors.

My wife came up with the idea to see if the installers can work around them. Maybe they could rip up half the floor on the one side of the room, then push the bookshelves over to the other side, and rip up the floors beneath where they were.

It was a weekend, though, and the floor place wasn't open to call them, so while we waited, we pushed the bookshelves into a new configuration that my wife wanted to try out.

She's been suggesting for a while that we should wrap the bookcases around the corner and continue them on the wall where my desk usually is. We pushed them into place, and really like the way it looked.

She really wants to go all in, and make them look like they're built in bookshelves...which I suppose they kind of will be once we put trim on them that seals them in. That could look really nice, though, if we ever move out of here, we'd probably have to leave the shelves behind.

Might be better to buy all new ones than to try to get these ones out of there though. That seems like an impossible task. The floor guys, when we finally got a hold of them, said we could leave the bookshelves in place. They could slide them to one side, remove the flooring from that half, then slide them to the other side for the other half. So, I'm happy to say that I am done, and ready for the floor demolition that is on its way later this week.

It's sad to sit in my den the way it is now, though. It's always been my special place to spend time. It has my computer, and even better, my glorious book/toy shelves. Now it's a shell of its former self. How long will it take to return it to its former glory? Hopefully not too long.

The Denizens Of Ankletown II

Before pulling down my bookshelves, I thought I would set up all the 3.75 inch figures I've gathered over the last while to check out where I was at.

I divided them up by the type of figure they were, starting with Fortnite guys.

If I'm counting correctly, that's fourteen figures (four of them are just Catbots). That's a lot, right? I probably ought to lay off buying them, and spend more time spiffying them up. Several of them could use some paint (especially those Catbots), or some drybrushing and blackwashing.

But that's not all. There's the Star Wars figures.

A lot of stuff from my two sons' collections, a bunch of figures Rish tossed my way, and some Vintage collection stuff I cot over the past few months. 

Again, I really ought to try working on improving the figures I've got instead of buying more. Blackwash and drybrushing could make them much improved. I should turn Greedo and Hammerhead into members of the Brute Squad or something. Maybe Ki-Adi-Mundi too. 

Could I kitbash a wookiee with a Halo guy? Or does it have to be even taller than that? It would look weird for a wookiee to be the same height as Walrus Man or Hammerhead, right?

There's all the Halo stuff I've got...or most of it, anyway.

Most of that stuff is going to be highly customized before it ever sees the light of day on Ankletown Station. I don't know if I want any plain old normal Spartans to be walking the streets of Ankletown. They've gotta have an alien head or something and be on the Brute Squad. Those helmets are just so recognizable, and I don't want them like that. A few might be unusual enough that I could leave them as is, and the aliens are fine, but otherwise, I want some changes made.

Then there's my customizing fodder, also known as Final Faction figures.

I probably really overdid it with these toys, except that they're only a dollar a piece, so I don't feel so bad for that. When I can get ten of them for the price of a single Halo figure, or fourteen or fifteen for the price of a Star Wars Vintage Collection figure, then having fifteen doesn't seem so bad.

I'm really excited to start building these into some fun customs though. I think I'm going to try to interest my son, who is home for the summer, in customizing them with me. He spends all day on the couch playing video games or watching YouTube, so it could only improve his well-being to do it with him, and he's seemed pretty interested in the whole Ankletown project from the start. Maybe it needs to be our project instead of my project. Ankletown Station by Big and Little Anklevich.

I have a whole bag full of plastic junk that I've been saving over the last few months, what could we turn it all into? I'm pretty sure we could get a lot of droids out of that bag combined with these final faction guys.

Okay, here's the figures from more than one random line, since I didn't have enough to make it worth a separate picture of each.

Many of these are destined for some customizing, and a lot need repaints. Almost none will fly as is. Ian Malcolm and Jack Sparrow are probably fine though. And Ravage. I don't think he needs anything...maybe a blackwash and some drybrushing. I don't know.

This is a picture of the stuff I've already customized.

A few aren't done yet, but President Government and DJ Squid Head are 100% complete. Laka Baba just needs to be re-blackwashed and re-drybrushed, because I hated how the drybrushing turned out the first time. The Final Faction alien just needs his pain touched up, and he'll be done.

What do you think of the robot that my son painted. It's the thing on the far right of the picture. He added the wires and the gun belt. The paint is a little sloppy, but I think the kid has some real potential.

Well, that's all of it, or basically all of it. There might be a thing or two that I missed, but you've seen most of it.

I think the real takeaway from this post is that I need to stop buying stuff and start customizing it and building the city, and I better do that with Little before he becomes a teenager and hates me for never spending any time with him and letting him waste his life watching YouTube videos of guys playing Minecraft and Zelda.

Skull Team Growth

I said in my post about Metal Mouth that I was needed to go through my Halloween box and get out all the Skull Face Squad to take a picture, and see what I had amassed. Well, today I did that, and here's your picture.

The Skullies now number ten members. I think they look pretty good. I'm not sure whether I'll put them all up together like this when Halloween comes. They might be spread out a little. I don't know. They'll all have some weapons at least. I didn't get any of the weapons out, because that would have been too much of a pain.

So, What do you think? And do you have any suggestions to add to Skull Team Six?